The Others: The Second Year
by AlcatrazOutpatient
Summary: Several years ago, the sister of my best friend Spoke of a woman who would bring the end to this war and that she could be found in the pages of the Thousand Spell Book. And so, in the final year of peace, the hunt for Heavenly Sound began.
1. Morning, Casanova

**The Others: The Second Year**

**Disclaimer:** Yu-gi-oh! Duel Monsters is owned by Kazuki Takahashi, Studio Gallop, Nihon Ad Systems, TV Tokyo and 4Kids Entertainment. All names were changed to the characters of this fandom in order to protect the real people involved in the following incidents.

**Warning:** Please read before continuing on! This is the second book in a trilogy. To understand what is going on, please check out my profile and look for The Others: The First Year

_To Neha  
>You are the only person<br>Who has survived my plot rants  
>Who has lived through my mutters and my madness<br>Who knows more about what is going to happen  
>Than any person on the planet<br>And has somehow  
>Somehow<br>Not lost her _entire_ mind  
>I thank you from the bottom of my heart<br>For every time you ask me to read  
>A chapter to you<br>It is an honour to know you  
>- Lor<em>

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 1: Morning, Casanova<strong>

Welcome back.

I'm assuming that you've made your choice to return. I hope that you've thought this through because after this, there is no turning back. You've already immersed yourself so much in the truth that it will stay with you forever. I wouldn't be surprised if you had started to look over your shoulder occasionally, wondering if those that you pass on the street are who they appear to be.

I know I do. Even after all this time, I'm still paranoid. It's a force of habit, I guess.

When I last left you, it was the May of the year 2017. I'd just survived the first major battle of my life. I'd seen someone that I'd known fall to my enemy. Tristan Taylor left the world before his time, a bullet through the middle of his forehead. He was eighteen years old. I was at the funeral and watched his family weep from afar.

No one should have to bury their own child. And yet, my sister, Amane, and I did that to our own parents. I don't know if mom has forgiven us for that just yet.

As you probably remember, Amane faked her death after the bombing in Domino City. Or, as most of the state probably remembers it, a gas explosion that was (apparently) rigged by me. I didn't do it. Instead, a set of Converts brought in a bomb to destroy all evidence that they'd been there. My father was amongst them. He held a gun to my head.

That would be the last I ever saw of him before he became a high-ranking member of the Army of the Orichalcos.

After the battle, I left Domino City to live with my best friend, Marik, in San Francisco for a few months. It was pretty awesome. Mai and Mana came over a few times, the latter more than the former. That might have had something to do with the fact that Mana's Marik's girlfriend. Mai and I locked them in a closet and didn't let them out for two hours, while we went off and played video games (how the hell she beat me at Super Smash Bros, I will never understand).

When they came out, Marik had some pretty interesting marks on his neck and a dazed look in his eye. Mana had an oddly smug smile on her face. Something told me that I didn't want to know what happened in there.

And then there was my sister. After we'd left Domino City, Amane moved into an apartment in Danvers, Massachusetts under the name Rebecca Hawkins. There she set up base as gh05twr1tt3r. After a few weeks, Kaiba saw the complete potential in her and gave her some top-of-the-line equipment and introduced her to Noah.

Those two get along so well, Kaiba actually shuddered at the thought of what they would do together if left alone. I am convinced that Amane and Noah could combine their powers and take over the world in less than a day if they wanted to.

Amane spent most of her summer hijacking the campaigns of Mokuba's opponents, destroying the credibility of their sponsors and making anyone that ran against him look rather incompetent. Mokuba Kaiba would become the next New York senator in a landslide election, thanks to her.

She PORTed over occasionally to say hi. Amane actually come over the day that I'm going to start you all off on. I was looking at the newspaper when she came in, reading about her latest accomplishment: destroying the credibility of a US Senator-possible with a few clicks of a keyboard.

But this is where the story really begins, on that relatively obscure Wednesday morning in October. Atlantis was about to begin taking students again and this year, we were going to have a celebrity among us. He'd be my roommate that year as I took over for the job that Marik had with me the year before.

I wonder sometimes if he had a different mentor, if he would have lived longer. I don't know, but I miss him so much. He was like a little brother to me. And when he died…god, it was almost too much.

If I had sons, I'd name one after Leon von Schroeder.

I won't ask you if you want to back out again. No, you've been given enough chances to leave – if you wanted to, you'd be long gone by now. I'm not going to insult you by repeating the same thing over and over.

But if I may give you a small piece of advice: hold on to your seats. Things are about to get a little bumpy. And by 'a little', I really mean 'a lot.'

So strap in. You're in for the long haul now.

* * *

><p><em>Wednesday, October 11<em>_th__, 2017_

"Wow. You're not only vertical, but also awake before eight in the morning. Who are you and what have you done with Ryou?" My sister teased me as she came into the kitchen. I was sitting at the table as Marik's older brother, Odion, started to come down the stairs.

"I've kidnapped him and am currently holding him hostage," I joked, taking a sip of a wonderful drink that I had discovered over the summer holidays: coffee. It was like the afternoon in liquid form.

"And what do I have to do to get him back?" Amane grinned and played along.

I held up the front page of the newspaper, "Explain exactly how this got into the hands of the media."

Splashed across the front page were the words: THE RACE FOR NEW YORK STATE TURNS DIRTY. Under it was a picture of one of the runners in the election with his hand up the shirt of a girl who couldn't be older than thirteen.

"He shouldn't have kept the photo on his hard drive in a folder labeled 'Porn'," she grabbed the paper from me, skimming over the article underneath. "He's dropping out of the race, that good for nothing – son of a bitch! What do you mean they're not pressing charges? He's got his hand up her shirt! What more proof do you want?"

"That's the American government for you. Unreliable to the point of stupidity," I rolled my eyes and snatched the paper back.

"And fueled by Orichalcos stones. I am sooo draining his account and making an anonymous donation to World Vision. And then I think I'm going to buy myself some new boots," she sighed, tilting her head to read the comics on the back page. Odion sighed lightly at our antics before shoving some bread into the toaster.

Odion Ishtar was Marik's older brother through adoption. Surprisingly enough, he was an Other, just like his younger siblings. He's explained to me that he's been taken in by the Ishtars when he was an infant and therefore the Ward hadn't kicked in yet. Odion described himself as one of the lucky ones.

He was a CIA agent, which was one of the few organizations in the government that had been left relatively untouched, though it was only because the current director was essentially running a Vichy regime. Odion was reporting on their actions from the inside on top of his regular duties for the Resistance.

Those duties had, at one point, cost him half of his face. Old burn scars covered the left side, making his eye droop closed on occasion. But at the same time, Odion didn't try to hide them by turning his head so that you couldn't see them. He looked me dead in the eye whenever I'd had a conversation with me. I think it was more out of respect than anything else, though.

"That showed up a few minutes ago," he nodded to a cardboard box with packaging tape around it that was sitting on the tile floor in the sunlight kitchen. On the top were the familiar red lettering that spelled out: KaibaCorp.

"School supplies? Or…something else," I moved over to the box, noting that it was much larger than the one last year that had shown up on my bed…oh…

It had been almost six months since I'd last been in Domino City – six months since I'd last been in that room. Amane had told me in one of her earlier visits that she still kept tabs on our parents, having tapped their internet and phones while we'd still lived there. Apparently, dad was living in a hotel near the police station most days now.

"Mom kicked him out, probably," Amane's lips were a tight, thin line when she said those words. "Only good thing that's gone down over there since we disappeared."

I doubted that my sister would ever fully get over what happened during prom night. I doubted that any of the people who were part of what went down there would. Even the ones that had their memories altered would still think of that day and shiver.

But the ones who did know…god, I hadn't spoken to any of them since May. None of us had. I hated to admit it, but I kind of missed them: Duke and his steadfast promises, Serenity and her sweet smiles, Miho and her nervous stutters, Tea and her strangely calming tones. I even missed Joey, though it was only a bit. It's hard to really miss the guy who used to beat you up for the hell of it, no matter how sorry you felt for him about losing the man he loved.

And speaking of people that meant something to me, I'd gotten a very odd phone call the other day. It was from Atem, of all people, and I thought that this was the first time she'd used a phone ever. In the beginning, she sounded a bit frightened by it, words spilling into the mouth piece that were only partially in English. I believed that she was asking for guidance from a god of some sort.

Long story short, she was coming over today, which was why I was up at such a ridiculous hour drinking black coffee in order to make it so that my brain was somewhat functional when she showed up. I didn't want to embarrass myself too badly by impersonating a zombie and being unable to string a pair of words together.

"I think that it's bigger because it's also got Marik's stuff in it," Odion's voice brought me back to reality as I ran my knife down the line of tape and opened the box. Just before I began to shift through its contents, he asked if Mana had come over the night before.

"Yeah, she was here. Why?" I frowned at him.

"That would explain it. You might not want to go near his room for a little while. He sounded a bit…preoccupied," a small grin appeared on his face. "It's good to know that he's getting over his aphephobia, even though it's mostly centered on Mana."

I dropped the new sling bag at that information, my face red with the knowledge that two of my friends were upstairs getting it on. Amane just laughed at my misery.

"And you told me once that you weren't a prude," she giggled, walking over to where I was standing (like a fucking mortified statue) and looked at what was inside. She let out a high-pitched squeal.

"He used it! He promised and he did! He did, he did, he did!"

"What are you talking about?" I came out of my stupor.

"Look at these babies," she shoved what was in her hands under my nose. "I totally gave the guy the idea to make these. Fully usable fake debit cards!"

"Explain for those who do not understand moon speak," I raised an eyebrow at her.

Amane rolled her eyes, "These work just like any credit card, except there's no actual money on the other end. But the chip can confuse the machine so that it thinks that there is and if you put it into an ATM, you can withdraw any domination up to one thousand dollars."

I took one from her and turned it over in my hands. That was pretty cool. There was even a fake drivers licenses and passports. Apparently, I was going under the name Chuck Powers now…or Ted Lewis…or a bunch of other people I didn't know.

"There's only set one of these in here."

"Of course there is. Marik may have volunteered to help out during the Battle of Domino City, but he's more useful to the Resistance as an intelligence gatherer," Odion explained. "You're going to be the one that's apart of a strike team."

I swallowed hard, thinking of my future and what it would be like. Atem and I were apparently going to be forming some sort of hit squad of two that could be anywhere at any time. And in between duties, we were on the hunt for the Thousand Spell Book: the mysterious novel said to contain the location of Heavenly Sound, the woman who would put an end the Orichalcos war, one way or another.

Then what Amane had said caught up to me, "Who's the guy that makes this stuff?"

Huh. I was getting a new phone this year as well. The only difference I could spot was the second camera, the one facing the front in case I wanted to take a picture of myself.

"No one knows," she said mysteriously. "He's the Inventor. All these cool gadgets are his design. He's been taking KaibaCorp's models and tweaking them for semi- to completely illegal activities. I've only IMed with him a few times, but, damn, he's a genius."

"I-whated?"

"IM. Instant messaging. God, Ryou, sometimes I think you live in the Dark Ages," my sister laughed at me. "He goes by the screen name FiRe_StArTeR, in case you ever need to talk to him."

Marik stumbled down the stairs at that moment, a satisfied smirk on his face and his hair messier than his usual bedhead. Mana was not far behind him.

"Morning, Casanova," I yawned as I spoke.

"Good morning to you too, Bakura," Mana waved tiredly as her boyfriend started to snicker. I tossed Marik's new bag and mobile to him. Immediately, he switched the SIM card of his old phone into his new one.

There was a knock at the front door. I knew who it was. I jumped up and tried to control my urge to run to answer it. I yanked the knob open and a smile painted itself across my face.

"Hey! You're here – oof!" Atem knocked my breath out of my lungs with the force of her hug. After regaining my bearings, I wrapped arms around her and returned it.

"Hands off of my mother," Kaiba growled behind her. I let go and through my hands up in surrender.

"I was hugged first. It was self-defense," I gave him my best 'I'm not trying to get with your mom' smile. I didn't think that it worked because Atem punched me lightly on the way in. Kaiba shoved passed me and gave me the evil eye.

"You know, I could consider that child abuse," I grumbled, rolling my shoulder.

"You're a legal adult now, Bakura. The term is assault, if you are planning to charge her in criminal court," he said, sighing as if resigning himself to some terrible fate. "Go pack. We're leaving for Washington in twenty minutes – and I mean twenty minutes this time! We're leaving, with or without you."

He went into the kitchen to talk to Odion while I bounded up the stairs into the room that I'd been living in over the summer. It was a sweet place, though I kept the curtains closed most of the time. The bed was comfortable as hell, so much so that I often slept though my alarms.

I began to take stuff out of the closet before I realized that my new bag was still downstairs.

"Looking for this?" Atem leaned against the doorway, holding exactly what I was looking for. I smiled as a few dozen butterflies decided to take residence in my stomach.

"Yeah. Thanks," I took it from her and our hands brushed. I took a quick step back and resumed my packing. I tried to strike up a conversation, "So, what have you been up to lately? I've been trying to see if I could catch wind of you in the news, but there's been nothing."

"I've been keeping quiet the past few months, mainly going out as Danni Green to collect information," she explained, coming closer and sitting on the bed. I tried to keep my boxers out of sight – what? I didn't think we were at the point in our relationship where she needed to see what kind of underwear I wore. Not that we were in a relationship, even though we'd kissed three times.

"Any news on the Book?"

"Surprisingly, yes," she answered. "Have you ever heard of a company named Gozaburo Inc. before?"

"The name sounds familiar. Why? What's this about?"

"Gozaburo Inc. was what KaibaCorp used to be before Seto took over. The CEO, Mr. David Gozaburo, died when someone pumped him full of enough tranquilizers to put down a small herd elephants on Christmas Eve, 2012," she explained.

"I remember it now. His death made the news…but I thought that they never found a cause," I frowned.

Atem shrugged, "Tell the police that and you'll be able to connect me with one of the murders that I am a suspect for."

My jaw dropped, "You killed David Gozaburo. Why?"

"I'm sure you heard the stories about what he was doing, both on and off the books," she answered as I started to pack again. "Officially, Gozaburo Inc. began supplying the American military with equipment after 9/11. Unofficially, he was influencing the campaigns of major political players so that the War on Terrorism never ended. Remember the boycott of the 2012 elections?"

That was one of the few things that stuck with me from Ms. Madusa's history classes, "Almost three-quarters of the population didn't turn out to force the government to bring back the troops from the Middle East."

"Exactly. According to our intel, the government was willing to do that, but then Gozaburo made them keep them there. Do you know why?"

"Soul Steeler told me once that the Middle East was one of the most infected regions on the planet because of the Ancient colony of Babylon," I answered. "I'm guessing that the army has been completely turned into Converts and Infecteds."

"It's not just that," Atem explained as I finished packing my clothes and moved to my desk where my tablet was sitting. "The Orichalcos was brought back into this world a few days before I was cursed, but Dartz only managed to create a single stone. To get more stones, more blood needed to be spilled except it didn't matter whether the person was innocent or not anymore."

"Death creates stones?" I whispered in horror.

"Specifically, violent deaths. There's a conversion spell that needs to said, but wars and genocides are essentially massive factories for the Orichalcos," she admitted, shaking her head. "I saw a few of those factories in years before I met Dark God. They were using the African slave trade to disguise what they were really doing. No one cared if a few slaves went missing every so often."

"And the War on Terrorism is the ultimate war because America is fighting an ideal. You can kill the dreamer, but can't kill the dream," I sighed, sitting down beside her.

"Martin Luther King Jr.," a small smile appeared on his face.

"Five dollars says that you met him," I grinned, but she shook her head.

"No, but I did listen to some of his speeches. He was one of a kind, that man."

"I bet he was," my hand snuck around her shoulders as I faked a yawn, attempting to pull the oldest trick in the book. Atem was here, looking really pretty, and was sitting on my bed with me. Stuff could happen in beds. Maybe that was why I was acting braver than I usually did around her.

"But the point that I was trying to make," she continued on and I felt a little put off, "is that Gozaburo was involved in the distribution of the Orichalcos; he was a dealer, to use modern terminology. So we took action."

"You assassinated the man. But how in the world did you even get close to him?"

"Several years ago, when his marriage wasn't going to well, Gozaburo met regularly with a young escort. He fathered a pair of sons with her. After she died pneumonia, he started to look for them," Atem looked at my arm, contemplating what to do with it. Then she leaned into me and resumed talking, "I told him that I knew where they were and would set up a meeting between him, Seto, and Mokuba."

"Seto and Mokuba Kaiba are his biological children?"

"No. I lied to the man. A drunk driver killed their parents when Seto was seven. Gozaburo just had to believe they were his. He changed will so that Seto inherited his company and then we took him out," Atem explained. "We did it originally so that we could stop his dealing, but as of recently, we've started going through his old records and the Thousand Spell Book pops up occasionally."

"Really?" That seemed a bit cold hearted of her. I knew that Atem was a killer, but to use a man's dreams of finding his own children against him? That was harsh, even for her.

As if sensing my discomfort, she kept talking, "Desperate times called for desperate measures. I thought…that you weren't going to come back. I had no one coming to help."

"Oh."

Well, that explained a few things. My last reincarnation, Akeifa Bakura, died over two hundred years ago and I was supposed to appear sometime in the 1900s. However, I was born in the year 1999, so while I technically was alive within the time period, I didn't show myself to her. So Atem thought that I'd simply stopped reincarnating.

Atem stood suddenly, explaining that my twenty minutes were up. We started our trek downstairs together.

I thanked the Ishtar family for letting me stay and hugged Mana and Amane before I left. My sister slipped something into my pocket before I let go of her, whispering, "Just something for you later."

There was a car waiting outside. It was a four door American-made SUV with tinted windows and a black paint job. It felt a lot bigger on the inside than it did on the outside. Kaiba climbed into the front passenger seat as Atem led me into the back.

Mokuba sat in the far seat, with Kisara and Ishizu in the row behind us. Moto was driving.

"Why are we going to Washington?" I felt a bit claustrophobic, caught in between the door and Atem.

"What do you know about the von Schroeder family?" Kisara leaned forwards through the seats to look me in the eye.

"Other than the father is the president and the son is an Other? Not much. I'm not really into politics."

I was handed a file. I opened it and vaguely recognized the face of the president's son.

"Bakura, we need to ask a favour of you," Ishizu said, but her tone suggested that I was really being voluntold to do something. Oh man, this was going to be one of those days.

* * *

><p>"You're going to want to change," Moto handed me some clothes and stood guard by the door of the public washroom. Once inside a stall, I quickly put on the dress shirt and trousers, tossing my old clothes back in my bag.<p>

I came out, feeling incredibly nervous, shrugging on my black trench coat and pulling the hood up to avoid the sun. After activating a PORT in the car over to the parking lot of the KaibaCorp building and then into the streets of Washington, D.C. The White House loomed in the distance as we got back in the car and started to drive towards it.

Atem pulled on her wig, becoming Danni Green and put on a pair of glasses that made her eyes seem darker. Secret Service swarmed the car before we were allowed out, checking underneath for bombs as well as the insides for any concealed weapons.

Once they determined that we weren't armed to the teeth (hah, irony), we were directed through security, getting both a pat down and having to walk through one of those full body scanners. My bag went through a metal detector, before three men that looked like they had just stepped out of a wrestling ring escorted us to a waiting room.

The Kaibas refused to sit, instead standing protectively around their adoptive mother. It was completely understandable, considering the last time Atem had been her, she'd taken five bullets to the chest and one to the knee. I'd know. I'd been the one to heal her, merging with Touzoku and becoming one with him.

I'd done the same thing with Dark God during prom and I'd noticed a few things had changed about me afterwards. Sometimes, I could just tell where people were without actually knowing. I didn't understand how I did it, but once over the summer, Marik asked me where Ishizu was and I could tell him that she was in her office. The thing was, I didn't even know that she was home. And yet, I knew.

Then there were the memories and, god, those were disturbing. The Ishtars didn't eat much in the way of meat, but one night we went out to a restaurant and I ordered a steak only to get a flash of Dark God sinking his teeth into someone's arm and liking it. Needless to say, I quickly got up and went to the toilet to puke my guts up. There was other stuff, too, but I didn't want to think of that right now.

Dark God was different, I'd noticed. Something had happened to him during those moments in which we had merged together. I didn't know what it was, but sometimes I would hear him and Touzoku talking in the back of my mind. I thought that the Healer was trying to give a little bit of counseling. I wondered if it was working because Dark God still seemed pretty messed up.

So I could feel the man coming before he actually appeared. I didn't know whom it was, just getting this feeling of a muddy brown fire coming closer. I glanced up, frowning at the doorway as the sound of footsteps got louder.

But when he came in the room, I immediately shot to my feet. Holy crap! It was him: Zigfried von Schroeder, the current President of the United States.

He was a tall man with broad shoulders and startling red hair. The man was young for a President, barely into his last thirties, but he seemed to carry wisdom with him that was beyond his age. I'd only ever seen that look on one other person's face before and she was one of the oldest people on the planet.

"Mr. President," Mokuba took point, moving forwards and shaking the man's hand. I stood, eyes wide and back ramrod straight, wondering how the hell my life had become this in less than a year. I was same room as the freaking President! This was…crap, I didn't even know what this was.

"Mr. Kaiba, it's good to see you again. The speech you made at Carol's funeral – I never got to thank you for it. It was very touching," von Schroeder smiled sadly.

"Lady Carol was an inspiration to us all, sir. It was the very least that I could do," Mokuba let go and gestured to the rest of us. When his eyes focused on Atem, knowing exactly who she was. I took a hasty step towards her, trying to be protective.

"I've brought everyone you requested to see," Mokuba grinned, his gaze passing over me. "That and a few more."

The President nodded and gestured for us to follow him. I walked rigidly, eyes wide and taking in everything that we walked passed. Part of me really hoped that we were going to one particular room in the White House. It would be really, really awesome if we did.

As we went up a set of winding stairs, I noticed someone standing at the top. He was a sharp dressed man with greying hair. Kaiba and Kisara smirked at the sight of him.

"Magnum," Kaiba addressed him. "How's the stock exchange treating you lately?"

I didn't know how much more of this I could take. That was Jean-Claude Magnum, the CEO of DOMA, KaibaCorp's leading competitor. I felt so small and insignificant in comparison to all the powerful people who were in this room. There were billionaires and politicians, Seers and Berserkers, as well as a disguised Immortal. Why they wanted me to do what they had proposed to me on the ride over seemed completely beyond me.

"As well as it is probably treating you," Magnum answered with a false, highly practiced smile. "And hello, Ms. Bleu. It's been too long."

"Not long enough I'm afraid," Kisara's hands were clasped around her back, but I could see that her nails looked a little too much like claws for her to be completely calm. She obviously did not like this man.

"Good day, Mr. Magnum, but if you will excuse us," von Schroeder moved around him and continued to lead us down the hall.

"Watch out for him. There's something very wrong with that man," Atem whispered to me as we passed him by.

The President opened a door at the end of a hallway, leading us into the most famous room in all of America: the Oval Office. I nearly went into a fit of hysteria at the pure awesomeness of everything.

The three windows behind the desk let the light into the room. I tread softly on the carpet, worried that I'd leave a stain on the massive eagle in the middle of the room.

"Now, to business," von Schroeder sat down nervously behind his desk. "If you would, Mr. Kaiba?"

Mokuba grinned, pulling his phone out of his pocket and putting it to his ear. After a few heartbeats, he said, "FiRe_StArTeR, if you would? And get ready Noah."

The lights flickered for a second before returning to normal. Immediately, Kisara pulled out a USB and plugged it into the computer on the President's desk. Noah, the smart ass AI program, popped up on the screen.

"Alright, ladies and gentlemen! Relax, sit back, and prepare to be amazed," Noah cracked his knuckles, teeth flashing wildly as he started to cackle. "There's nothing up my sleeves, nothing hidden anywhere, and yet – "

"Noah, get on with it," Kaiba snapped.

"Right-o, boss man! FiRe_StArTeR has activated the EMP, so all the bugs are down. I'll keep the people on the other line…distracted, so talk all you want. God, I love tricking these people!" The programs laugher became maniacal. Kaiba reached forwards and pressed the mute button.

"Who was that?" von Schroeder raised an eyebrow.

"That would be Noah. He's…eccentric," Ishizu explained as Atem moved to the doors and sealed them shut.

"We can now talk without being overheard," she said, removing her wig. The President jumped in surprise. I started to prepare for the worst when a large smile spread across his face.

"The Immortal. Hello, Atem. It's been far too long. I knew that you were safe, I just knew it!"

"It's good to see you too, Zigfried. Well, I've got Bakura here to thank for my survival," she nodded towards me and I somehow became stiffer as his gaze. The President frowned before his eyes widen.

"Good God, is it possible? I mean, I've read about him, but…a descendent, perhaps? Of Napoleon's greatest warrior, Akeifa Bakura?"

"No. Akeifa had no children and neither did his younger sister, before her death. Bakura, here, is not a descendent. He is a reincarnation," Atem explained.

"Amazing. Absolutely amazing. I never get tired of this, not at all," von Schroeder came forwards and held out his hand for me to shake it, oh my god!

"Bakura, sir – Mr. President, um…Ryou Bakura. Hello," I stammered. His hand was clammy, probably from the fact that he was in a room with a bunch of Others. The Ward was still there, after all.

"You're not American," he tilted his head to the side in interest. "Welsh, possibly."

"I was born in Cardith," I told him. "And you're from London. Sir."

"Very good. Could you tell by the accent?"

"Not really. I read it somewhere," I rubbed the back of my head, thinking of the file that I'd been given on the way over.

"Close enough then," he grinned, but then it slipped from his face as he turned back to the room. "So, I assume you want to talk about my son."

"It wasn't his fault, sir. He had no idea that this would happen," Moto stepped forwards, speaking for the first time.

"I know. I know," von Schroeder sounded like he was trying to convince himself of the truth. "But she's still gone. Carol's gone and there's no way to bring her back."

"Sir, its not his fault," Moto reminded him again.

"It's just…it was just a touch. That's all it was – just a touch. What a frightening power," his last words came out as a whisper.

I frowned. Where had I heard of this kind of thing before? I remembered a tree and bright blue eyes…of course!

"Your son is a Death Touch," I said in awe. But that would mean…

"Yes. And my wife's death is a result of his...gift," von Schroeder turned away, sighing sadly.

"That's why, isn't it? That's why you want me to be his sponsor," I turned to Kaiba and the others. "Because I've got an Overpower as well."

"You have one, too?" von Schroeder asked, leaning back slightly.

"I'm a Necromancer, sir. I help souls to pass on when they stay behind," I explained.

"Yes, that's the reason. We were considering Mr. Burke, but we made him a sponsor last year, so we thought it would be fair to give him a break," Moto told me. It took me a moment to think that he was talking about Strings, who's real name was Coy Burke.

"You know how to deal with death, Bakura. Leon doesn't," Kisara explained. "And there's something else as well. We don't know of any other Death Touches in existence. Most of them hide themselves from humanity, not daring to come into contact with anyone. But you've got the best expert on Overpowers trapped in your head."

"Touzoku," I muttered. "You want him to see if he can help."

"We figured that if he knew how to get a Berserker under control, then he would know something about a Death Touch," she continued. "Could you ask him?"

"He's already said yes," I passed on his message to Kisara. "But…there's one condition. He wants you to teach him about modern medicine."

"Consider it done," Kisara smiled at the thought of being able to give something back to the grandfather who had helped her to survive her early years as a Berserker.

"There's one other thing you should know, Bakura, before we go to meet him," Moto turned to me. "You saw in the file how old his is."

"Yeah. He's twelve. Strings was a year older when he was brought to Atlantis," I figured out the reason why they wanted to put this Leon kid with Strings. "But what does it matter?"

"There is a reason why we don't start teaching magic to students until they are about seventeen or eighteen years old. Once magic develops, it is incredibly unstable for the first five or six years," Moto explained. "If we were to teach them how to control their powers earlier, we would risk them blowing themselves up."

"But you started learning how to use magic when you were eleven," I pointed to Atem, remembering that day from my dreams.

"This only started occurring after the Cut Off. I can only assume that it had something to do with what happened that day," Atem looked away, trying not to remember what Dartz and her father did: bring the Orichalcos back into the world.

Moto brought us back on topic, "However, we can't have an untrained Death Touch running around. Even if that means that we have to keep an extra eye on Leon to make sure that his core remains as stable as it can be, it would be worth it."

I nodded, "So where is the kid now?"

"School. He should be in class, right about now," the President said. I turned towards the door, unsealing it with my magic.

"Where are you going?" Atem asked.

"I'm going to go meet Leon von Schroeder," I answered as I walked out of the room.

I was just able to catch the President saying, "My, he's an impulsive one, isn't he?" before I started down the stairs and let myself out of the White House.

* * *

><p>This was probably the most posh middle school I'd ever seen in my entire life. But considering that I'd only ever really seen a few, my opinion didn't count for much.<p>

For one, the kids (some of which couldn't have been older than eight) wore uniforms. But they weren't the polo shirt and slacks kind – no, these were the blazer, tie, and crested button down shirt kind. The boys wore navy trousers and the girls wore green and blue tartan skirts. I noticed that the older the girls got, the shorter their skirts seemed to be.

I snuck in, covering myself in an invisibility Illusion to bypass the extensive security detail at the front door. As I hopped over the metal detectors (they did not have those at Domino High), I began to look for the elusive Leon von Schroeder.

He was outside, sitting behind one of the buildings and reading the third Harry Potter book. I could tell that this wasn't his first time reading it; the spine was cracking and the soft-cover of the book seemed to fold back naturally.

I dropped the Illusion, "Sirius Black was framed, but I think you already know that."

Leon jumped and the book went flying. I caught it before it fell into a puddle.

"W-who are you?" He stammered, hiding himself in his uniform. I noticed that his hands were gloved, probably out of fear of touching people.

"Better question: who, or rather what, are you?" I grinned at him.

Leon was a small little thing with bright red hair like his father. His face was covered in freckles that seemed to join together when he blushed. His eyes were a deep earthy brown.

"How'd you get passed the security? They don't even allow parents to get this far into the school. Who are you or I'll start screaming!" He threatened me.

"I'm not here to hurt you, kid. I'm here to help you."

"You can't help me. No one can help me," he snapped. "Who ever you are, just go away! Leave me alone. You don't know a thing about me."

"I know your name is Leon von Schroeder. I know –"

He cut me off, "Everyone knows that. My father's the most famous man in America."

"Let me finish," I held up my hand for silence. "I know that something happened to your mother a few months ago and you know think that it's your fault. Scratch that, you know it's your fault. I know that you think that I'm some freak who's going to tell you that it's all in your head, but I'm not. Because I know something else."

I leaned in, "I know that you saw your mother die, but through her eyes a few seconds after her death."

"How could you possibly…" Leon's face was white as a corpse.

"I know that you've always been different. Your parents could see it and they shied away from you, except when during photo opps and press conferences. I know that you've probably done some things recently and you don't know how to explain them. Have you turned something into something else? Made people see things that weren't there?"

"Sometimes…I know what people are thinking," he whispered in awe. "I can hear their thoughts."

"But that's happened recently. Probably around the same time you started to wear those," I pointed to the gloves on his hands. He quickly put them into the pockets of his blazer. "Leon, my name is Bakura. Ryou Bakura, but don't call me Ryou. And I used to think that I was crazy. Do you know why?"

"Why?"

"Because of this girl that I used to know. Her name was Rebecca Hawkins and she was four years old. I met her in a graveyard," I explained to him. "For the last three years, I told her everything that happened to me at my high school: every test I went through, all the people that I saw, every time that someone tried to kick my teeth in. But the thing is: Rebecca Hawkins died four years ago."

"Then who were you talking to?" Leon asked.

"Oh, I was talking to her, alright. I was talking to her spirit," I told him and made my eyes go red. He jumped back in shock.

"What the – what the hell?"

"Throughout history, people like us have been called many things: witches, wizards, magicians, sorcerers, warlocks, shamans, diviners, and mediums, just to name a few. As of more recently, we are called Others," I remembered that Moto had told me those exact words, all those months ago. "But that's not all we are. You and I are different, even amongst our people.

"We have what's called an Overpower, a little something extra that makes us unique. It's not all good stuff and I'm sure no one knows that more than you do, but it makes us incredibly powerful. I'm a Necromancer. You are a Death Touch."

"I don't believe you," he hissed, but I could tell that he was sold, somewhere inside his mind.

"Didn't expect you to. Honestly, I didn't really believe it until I saw Moto perform some magic," I scratched my head, looking around for something that would prove that I was telling the truth. I didn't want to scare him too much, but at the same time…

I reached into myself and called for an old friend.

"Change of Heart."

The woman appeared beside me in a swirl of darkness. Her long white dress swirled around her feet as she stretched her wings – one feathered and angelic, the other black and webbed like a bat.

Leon's jaw dropped.

"She's real, too," I turned to Change of Heart and suddenly felt very out of place. I'd been acting more adult than I'd ever been in my entire life.

"Are you an angel?" Leon asked the Summon-woman. Change of Heart bent down to his height and smiled.

"No, but the stories and legends of angels are based on those like me," she answered in her gentle voice. "Everything that is happening to you, Leon, is completely natural."

"Even my mother? Was that supposed to happen?" His fists clenched in his pockets.

"I'm so sorry about your mother, but I know that she is in a better place," Change of Heart placed her hands on his shoulders. Leon flinched and hurried out of her grasp. The woman laughed, but it was soft like the rest of her, "Don't worry. Your powers do not affect me. I am dead already."

I frowned at that, but decided to ask about it later. All that mattered at the moment was that Leon was convinced.

The pair of us were able to answer all of his questions about what was going to happen now. I told him about Atlantis, that I was a student there and the people who ran the place were currently talking to his father about transferring him in early. Leon was surprisingly happy for an Other of his age, but then again, he'd grown up with people that were expected to at least behave nicely around them. But I honestly thought that I'd get along with him.

This year was going to be awesome.

* * *

><p><span>And so began the last year of peace before the war erupted around us. So began the search for the Thousand Spell Book. So began everything that would take last year and make it look like relatively tranquil in comparison.<span>

I think that, despite all that had happened to me, I was still looking at everything with a child's mind. All I really saw was the glory of battle, saw the possibility to be a hero for once in my life. I thought that I'd be the guy who swooped in at the last moment, rescued the pretty girl and was home by Christmas.

Little did I know that around the Christmas season, I would be captured and tortured for information. After my eventual escape from captivity, I would spend almost two weeks puking my guts up due to alcohol poisoning. I was lucky that I didn't die. The Others version of the suicide pill is really nasty when you somehow manage to survive it.

But you all know what's coming. You've been warned and, for some reason, decided to ignore it. Not that I'm complaining, actually. I really want people to read this. You need to know what happened to us all. You need to know the truth about the Day of Freedom, the day after the apocalypse.

The stage has been set, the background has been revealed. The narrator, that anonymous voice, has filled you in on the goings on. And so now, this story is about to begin once and for all.

It all starts now.

* * *

><p><strong>Hello to all you lovely people out there!<strong>

**I'd like to thank the people who reviewed for the final chapter of The Others: THe First Year: VivienneLaFaye, Aqua girl 007, zukofan2005, RiverTear980, Akikee, Malik'sStalker, ilovemanicures, RacheleLovesRichtofen, and Seriyuu. Thank you all for your support and for being with me to the end. I couldn't have done all this without you.**

**So it all begins again. I'm going to warn you all in advance: The Second Year is going to be a lot more action packed than The First Year was. There will be more fight scenes, more deaths, and (as shown in the final section of this chapter) torture. There will also be a lot more explicit scenes because, to put it frankly, Bakura becomes sexually active in this book. That's why I'm starting off by rating this book M instead of rating it T and then moving it up to M later like I did in the last one.**

**If you've got any questions, comments or concerned, feel free to review. I promise that I will get back to you as soon as I can.**

**Until next time,**

**AlcatrazOutpatient**


	2. A Medical Miracle

**The Others: The Second Year**

**Disclaimer:** Yu-gi-oh! Duel Monsters is owned by Kazuki Takahashi, Studio Gallop, Nihon Ad Systems, TV Tokyo and 4Kids Entertainment. All names were changed to the characters of this fandom in order to protect the real people involved in the following incidents.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 2: A Medical Miracle<strong>

"_No, I won't do this! I-I refuse!"_

_I never thought I'd be happier to hear those words in my entire life. Atem was fighting against her marriage with Dartz and she was fighting venomously._

"_How dare you question my judgment? I let you stay here, let you live close to the thrown, you little parasite and this is how you thank me?" Her father raged, standing up in a manor that would have seemed threatening if Atem wasn't standing as tall as she was. I could see her around the pole that I was hiding behind and I simply couldn't stop grinning._

_She was fighting her father, finally standing up for herself and making a god damn choice for the first time since she bought me. And she'd started doing that ever since that night when we'd told each other what we really meant to each other. Now our accidental glances weren't that accidental and whenever our hands brushed they stayed a moment longer than would be considered friendly._

"_I am not a parasite! I am my own person and I will not marry him! I am not a tool for you to use however you want, father," and with that Atem stormed out of the throne room. I secreted myself out after her and waited for the best moment to reveal my presence._

"_I know you're there, Bakura. Come out of hiding," she sighed playfully._

"_What? I thought I got everything covered this time," I dropped by spell. "How'd you figure it out?"_

"_I didn't. I just figured that you would be eavesdropping, so I decided to test my theory," Atem grinned at me as I started to pout._

"_You're being mean again."_

"_I know," she laughed lightly and bumped me with her shoulder. I returned it, grinning manically._

_I didn't know what we had exactly. We definitely weren't together in any romantic sort of the word. The last time that we'd touched each other intimately had been that night when we'd kissed. But now…now I didn't know what this was._

_Some nights, I found myself testing the security around the palace walls. I noticed things like the shift changes in the guard's rotations and the spots that they didn't see because of the walls. I was preparing to run again, but this time I wasn't preparing to run alone._

_Because I was looking for other things as well. I'd looked at maps and tried to find where the nearest cities were and where the forest could provide cover. I wanted to see where the best place to hide was._

_I was looking to run with Atem, leave this poisonous place and just live. It didn't matter if her marriage wasn't called off – we'd still get out of here. This land, her father, and that bastard Dartz, were killing us both. We could be amazing together, but there was so much that stood in our way first._

_I just needed to know if Atem wanted to run, too. I thought that she did. I hoped that she did. I really, really hoped._

* * *

><p><em>Sunday, October 15<em>_th__, 2017_

I totally called dibs on the top bunk this year. In fact, I'd already staked out my claim on it, having moved back into Atlantis a few days ago. No one was here yet, but I'd divided my time between mock battles with Atem (and occasionally Kaiba the sadist) as well as familiarizing myself with all aspects of the Orichalcos that were known to the Resistance so far.

First off, the Orichalcos was a magical amplifier that forced magic through a person's body. On a Normal, it released their Limits, allowing Combat magic to flow through their veins and turned them into something called a Convert. There were also reports, which were sporadic at best, of them being able to preform actual spells, but those were usually followed up them getting their soul blasted into pieces. And once that happened, their bodies turned into the monstrous shambling creatures that were known as Gigas.

They were semi-immortal beings that were as tall as three grown men standing on each other's shoulders and stronger and more unstoppable than the Juggernaut. They had a chunk of the Orichalcos embedded into their foreheads and, unless you removed it, they could keep coming back from the dead, more powerful than they were before.

And if they weren't bad enough, people called Infected controlled Gigas'. They were essentially the Others version of a Convert, with the exception that they were ridiculously strong and able to preform incredible feats of magic. Atem had mentioned that if the Infected was powerful enough to begin with, sometimes they could gain access to the different Overpowers. And that was not a good thing. At all.

But we couldn't forget the stone itself: the Orichalcos. The little green glowy thing that was the most powerful drug on the entire planet. One touch was all it took to get hooked and the cravings were powerful enough to drive those attempting to become clean into a mad frenzy. Atem had spoken of someone that she'd seen once go through a series of fits. Apparently, the girl had thought that her insides were on fire.

"Kept saying that it smelled like roses," Atem had shuddered at the memory.

"Did she ever get any better?" I asked, shifting through some of the papers on her desk, looking for something that might be in English so I could understand it. I had no such luck.

"No," she said, shoulders tense and jaw clenched. I would get nothing more out of her about the mysterious addict from Atem's past.

The stones themselves could be destroyed if it was exposed to cold enough temperatures. Apparently, that's why during Thief King's life, the Armies of the Orichalcos were at a disadvantage. It was also why the stone had thrived in the Middle East. With the help coming from the former Ancient colony of Babylon being smack-dab in the middle of everything, Soul Steeler and his country of Egypt had stood little to no chance against the invading force that had already taken over so completely.

I hadn't unpacked my bag or my clothes. In fact, I didn't think that I was going to. I didn't know what I might need in my future adventures.

I started to hear the sounds of footsteps outside in the corridor and felt a slightly familiar yellow flame. I stuck my head out of the door to see if anyone I knew had shown up. I was now living in a room that was closer to the lift.

"Strings!" I grinned, grabbing the attention of one of my friends from last year. "Hey! How's it going?"

I thought-smelled ozone as his voice invaded my mind. Strings was incapable of speaking, so he used Enchantment to communicate. He raised a pierced eyebrow at me, "I hear you've been busy."

"Busy? What are you talking about?"

"They were calling you the Prom Crasher," he supplied. "Something about you blowing up a building because you were in love with your sister?"

Oh shit. If Strings had heard of that then I was sure that everyone else had, too.

"Uh, I can explain," in reality, I really couldn't. Strings didn't know about the Orichalcos, so I couldn't tell him what I knew.

"It's fine. I know you didn't do it," he rolled his eyes. "You may be weirdly close to your sister, but anyone who looks at you knows that you're crushing so hard on Atem."

"I'm not –" My jaw snapped shut as someone that I vaguely recognized from my classes last year hopped off of the lift. After the guy walked by (but not without throwing me an odd look), I hissed at Strings, "I'm not crushing on Atem."

Oh that was such a lie. I was so crushing on her.

"Right. And I'm Barnie the Dinosaur," he smirked. I tried to imagine Strings as a purple t-rex. Considering that the guy was a total goth, right down to the eyeliner and dog collar, it was a pretty humourous image. "Everyone knows, Bakura."

My face drained of what little colour I had left, "Everyone?"

"Yep. Absolutely everyone," String nodded. "You're really into the older women, huh? Atem's like the ultimate cougar."

My jaw flapped uselessly with no sound coming out at all. She was a what?

"Well, you're pretty blatant about it. You were always staring at her last year," he shrugged. "And…hello? Who's that?"

I felt a brown fire behind me and turned just in time to see Leon step out of the lift. He looked a little lost in his sweater vest and slacks, shuffling from one foot to the other.

"Hey, Leon. Over here!" I waved him over, "There's someone I want you to meet."

"Bakura, is that who I think it is?" Strings pointed at the elevator.

"Leon von Schroader, son of President Zigfried von Schroader? Yep. He's my new roommate," I said proudly as the kid quickly moved over to where I was standing. "Leon, this is Strings. Strings – Leon. Just warning you, Strings can't talk so he uses his mind…well, you'll get the point soon."

Leon just stared at the other guy with wide eyes. The kid had probably never seen someone like Strings before. He was one of a kind, after all.

"Hi," String raised a hand in greeting. Leon jumped at the touch of his mind.

"You'll get used to it eventually," I rolled my eyes. "Come on, this is us in here."

I lead him into our room. He clutched at his bag as if it was a lifeline.

"I know it's not much compared to the room you've got in the White House, but since Atlantis is the closest thing to home that I've ever had, it's pretty awesome," I shrugged.

Leon shut the door quietly, "That guy had more piercing than anyone I've seen in my entire life combined."

"You've never been to a public school before, have you?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Never."

"That explains a lot. Don't worry, Strings is actually pretty low key when it comes to things. You should meet my friend, Marik. He looks ordinary, but in reality, he's insane," I smirked.

"Great," he cringed, glancing around nervously.

"I don't bite, there's nothing to worry about. Relax or something," I really hoped that I wasn't this uptight when I first arrived. Of course, Marik's 'Shit, you're pale' comment bloke the ice rather nicely.

"Am I the youngest person here?" Leon blurted out. So that was what was making him nervous.

"Yeah. But it's not unheard of for someone your age to come to Atlantis. Strings started here when he was thirteen and he's a fourth year now," I told him.

"And you're what? Nineteen?"

"Eighteen," though that depended on who you were asking. I might be eighteen; I might be almost as old as Atem was herself.

"So, you've been through this, longer than I have," he sensed my confusion. "The…Ward, is that the right term? You've lived through it for a longer period of time?"

"Yeah."

"What did it do to you?"

I sighed, indicating for him to sit on one of the desk chairs. I pulled up mine and sat in front of him, "There's something you need to understand, Leon. It's an unwritten rule here at Atlantis, but you don't ask what the Ward did to people before they came here. They tell you when they're ready."

"Oh," he looked down in shame.

I smirked, "Lucky for you, though, I'm pretty much outted when it comes to my past, so I'm alright with you asking. Just be warned, because some people might not tell you."

"Is it…alright then? I mean, I'll tell you some of my life, but it's probably not something you want to hear. I'm pretty boring and –"

"You're replaced me so quickly, Bakura, and with a younger model, too. I thought we had something special," Marik slung himself dramatically against my doorframe.

I rolled my eyes, "Marik, you do realize that this is why your neighbour thought that we were a gay couple?"

"Yes, but he can go to hell," the guy blinked when he noticed just whom I was talking to. "Bakura, Leon von Schroader is in your room."

"Yes, he is."

"Any particular reason?"

"You know, I'm right here. You can just ask," Leon muttered.

"Alright. Why are you here?" Marik questioned him directly.

"Apparently, I'm an Other. A Death Touch, to be specific," he rung his hands together.

"A – a Death Touch? Did I hear him correctly?" Marik looked at me for confirmation, shocked at what that meant. I nodded. His jaw dropped, "You're mother died of typhus."

Leon nodded, but didn't make a sound. He looked very pale, his freckles standing out more than ever.

"I'm sorry…I didn't know. Uh, I'm Marik Ishtar," he tried to grin, but it seemed a bit forced.

"I know. We met once, when I was really young," I frowned at Leon's admission. When could they possibly have met before?

Marik couldn't remember it either, so the kid kept speaking, "I was five, I think. But I do remember you. It was at an auction and you were with, um, I think they were your brother and sister. You were selling your father's paintings."

Marik went rigid, like he'd just turned to stone. And I knew exactly why. Leon was speaking about the months just after his father carved open his back with a knife in the middle of the psychotic break.

"My mom used to collect his work. Khalid Ishtar was her favourite artist," he continued, seeming a bit excited but not realizing that Marik really didn't want to talk about his father at all. "We still have some of it hanging up in our old house and –"

"Leon," I stepped forward and hissed. "Stop talking. Now."

"But…?" He looked at me, confused. I shook my head.

"Marik and his father don't get along very well," I tried to keep it as vague as possible.

"Is that because of his internment in the mental hospital?"

"Leon. Stop," I put a hand on his shoulder. He jerked at the touch, nearly leaping out of his chair. I shook my head, "Remember what I just told you about not asking about people's pasts?"

"Oh," he looked down again.

"Can we talk? Outside," Marik said stiffly.

I nodded, promising Leon that I'd be back in a moment. I stepped outside.

"I don't like him," Marik said off the bat. I opened my mouth to argue, but he cut me off, "I'll deal with him, I just don't like him."

"Leon didn't know, alright. He's twelve years old and he just killed his mother, cut him a little slack. Remember what you were like when you were twelve?"

"Yeah, I was in therapy because of what Father did to me," he growled darkly.

"But he didn't know. He still doesn't know," I tried to reason with him.

Marik scoffed and turned around, pacing in the corridor, "I remember him now. His mother practically bought everything we were selling. But Leon was so young. How did he remember me?"

"Don't know, but it must have left an impression on him," I sighed. "Look, he's going to be hanging around for a while, so just try and get along."

"I still don't like him," he looked to the side.

"It's not like I'm going to stop hanging out with you. You're my best friend," I grinned.

He looked at me and sighed, "I know. I know." Then Marik pointed behind him, "Mai wants to talk to you before the end of the day."

"I'll see her in the cafeteria for lunch. You, too," I pointed at him.

"Yeah, yeah. Now get in there. He's probably wondering what's taking you so long," he shoved me towards the door.

"One more thing: on a scale of one to ten, how awkward was I when I first came here?"

Marik didn't even skip a beat answering, "About a fifty."

Then he was walking down the corridor to what I assumed was either his room or Mana's. I went back into my room and found a rather dejected Leon still sitting there.

"I don't think I'm going to like this place," he mumbled.

I frowned, "What makes you say that?"

"Considering my track record of liking schools, it's not looking good."

"Well, at least give it a try before you decide to hate it. Come on. There's food in the cafeteria and it's really good and I am starving," I grinned. "We'll see if we can find something that you like. And I want to introduce you to more of my friends."

"Will all of them have as many piercings as that guy from before?"

"If you thought Strings was odd," I snickered," I can't wait for you to meet Mai."

* * *

><p><span>Poor Leon. The kid was going through some major culture shock, going from the lands of wealth and prosperity to the rest of the world. He was eager to learn, but sometimes forgot that just he wanted to know didn't mean that he should know.<span>

He learned pretty quickly, though. And Marik and him managed to make up eventually.

Leon is a Death Touch, as I have already explained. Just as a reminder, a Death Touch's primary powers involved being able to transmit a disease or poison to another person via skin contact. This power is completely involuntary and they can't stop the fact that they will do this. However, they can learn to control exactly what they pass on, which is what Touzoku will be teaching Leon to do over the next year.

But there are some advantages to a Death Touch's curse. For one, they are essentially a medical miracle. The reason why they don't poison themselves when they touch themselves is because they are completely immune to any and all diseases or ailments that exist. That's the number one reason why Kaiba wanted Leon to come to Atlantis: not to stop an untrained Death Touch from walking around and not to have another super soldier on his side. No, nothing like that.

From a single vile of Leon's blood, you could extract the cure to any disease, from the common cold to cancer. On top of that, he is literally walking anti-venom.

So because Death Touch's are immune to disease, Leon had never gotten sick once in his life. Not only that, but any injury that he sustained could be healed in almost a single day. There was very little that can keep Leon down. From his blood, Kisara and Ishizu were able to invent something that could regenerate lost limbs and restore damaged brain cells. He saved so many lives and is continuing to do so, years after his death.

There are very few people who can boast that claim. Leon von Schroader is the only one that is under fourteen who can do so.

* * *

><p>Okay, maybe now I could see why Marik and Mai thought that this was so hilarious when I was first subjected to it last year.<p>

The thing is, Mai wasn't even trying to be somewhat seductive this time around (and if she wanted to, she definitely could). Leon's eyes just immediately bugged out when she sat down beside him, jaw dropping like he'd never seen a member of the female species before. But then again, Mai wasn't just some girl – she was Mai and she was in a class of her own.

"Hey," she leaned towards me. "Meet me in my room later. There's something I need to give you."

After lunch, I showed Leon around Atlantis, telling him where the classes were and where the nurse's office was located. He trailed around after me like a duckling, eyes darting around, taking in the sites. At one point, he pressed his nose up against the glass window and stared straight down at the people below.

"I've been on this street before. I looked up and saw this building, but I never knew what was going on inside," Leon spoke but his words were not addressed to anyone in particular. "Now I do and…so much has changed in the last few days."

"You remind me of my self. You took the news quite well, considering how much it must have messed with your head," I leaned against the glass beside him. "Don't tell anyone but…I threw up when first heard."

He looked at me owlishly, "No way."

"Yes way. I puked. It was rather disgusting."

"But you couldn't have. You're too cool to do that," Leon said those words like he meant them. I was lost for words. He stuttered, "I mean…"

"You…think I'm cool?"

"Well, yeah. Aren't you?"

I didn't know what to say. He thought I was cool? That was a complete first for me for someone to actually mean that.

"Not – not really," I admitted.

"I think you are. You were probably the coolest guy in your school before all of this magic stuff. I bet you had tones of girlfriends and…you are looking at me really weirdly," he commented.

"It's just, you're so off base with what really happened. I was the school loser. Barely anyone wanted anything to do with me," I told him. That was until, of course, I saved all their lives against an evil, gigantic monster that had tried to turn them all into road kill.

"That's not…that can't be possible," Leon frowned.

"Why not?"

"Because you're really cool," he said again.

I scoffed. He was probably just going through a phase. I'd be down to normal human levels in his eyes soon enough.

"Whatever. I still haven't shown you the Combat room. Its this way," I pointed him towards the far end of the corridor. Leon followed with childlike eagerness, always ready to learn something new, something exciting.

* * *

><p>"Hey, I heard you wanted to talk to me?"<p>

Mai let me into her room, "Yeah. Sit down."

I'd never been in one of the single rooms at Atlantis before. It was slightly smaller than the double room I'd had over the last few years and there wasn't much of a kitchen – just a mini fridge and sink. It was clear just who lived in here, from the Harpy Ladies band posters on the wall to the fact that she constantly kept the window blinds closed. Mai was a sniper and a member of the resistance. She was paranoid of being watched.

"What's up?" I didn't sit, merely standing in the middle of the room.

"Sit," she ordered once again, pointing to a chair as she went into her washroom. I was still standing when she came back. Mai frowned, "Any reason why you're ignoring what I'm saying?"

"Any reason why you're being so mysterious? And what's that?" I nodded to the canteen that was in her hand.

"Sit down, Bakura. Please," she sighed. I gave in and sat.

"There's something I need to give you," Mai's face was strangely drawn, eyes dark and skin pale. Her hands were trembling slightly.

"What's going on? Mai, what's in the thing?" I was starting to get a little worried.

She uncapped it and handed it to me, "Don't drink it, just take a whiff."

I did and immediately recognized what was inside, "Alcohol. That's…god, that's disgusting."

My stomach turned at the memory of the summer a few years ago that I decided to sneak a beer from the fridge and spent the next week lying in bed, thinking that I was dying.

"I take it you've tried some before," Mai smiled humourlessly. "I also assume that you know what it does to an Other."

"Wait? That was supposed to happen? The whole 'super hangover' thing?" I was shocked.

"Yes. I don't know why, but it does. And that's why I'm giving this to you," she handed me the canteen. I nearly dropped it on the floor.

"Why?"

"Others have an incredible weakness to alcohol. The amount you have in your hands is enough to kill you stone cold dead," Mai looked me dead in the eye when she told me that. I gawked.

"Then what the hell are you giving me this for?" I didn't even want to hold this thing in my hands, let alone keep it on me.

"Because it's a lot less conspicuous then a god damn cyanide pill, Bakura!" She yelled.

It took me a full second to realize what she said, "Cyanide pill? This is…that's…"

"This is our version of the suicide pill. It's cheap, it's effective, and it's most likely a regular Convert who doesn't know what's really going on won't take it from you if you're captured," Mai hissed. "I want you to promise me something, Bakura. If you ever get captured, I want you to drink that. You don't ever want to go through what the Orichalcos users will put you through if they get you."

I hesitated before asking, "Mai, have you ever been captured before?"

"Yes," she admitted. "Myself and an old partner of mine, Vivian Wong. It was over a year ago."

"What happened?"

Mai glared at me, "We were two pretty girls taken by a bunch of thugs. What do you think they tried to do?"

I blanched. No. No. I refused to believe – she couldn't have been. Mai couldn't have been…

"I want you to promise me that you will use that if you are ever captured, Bakura. I want you to promise me." She grabbed my hands, enclosing them around the canteen. And I found myself promising.

Whether I told her that I would do it to calm her down or whether I was actually promising, I didn't know.

"I never understood why she did it," she whispered, though I didn't think that she was talking to me. "Why she saved me from them? Damn it, Vivian. Why would you agree to it?"

I had no answers for her, though I honestly wished that I did. At the same time, I knew that I never would have the answer that Mai needed. But that didn't stop me from simply being there for her, as her friend – now and forever.

* * *

><p><strong>Hello!<strong>

**I'd like to thank those that reviewed for the first chapter of The Others: The Second Year: Aqua girl 007, ilovemanicures, RacheleLovesRichtofen, Malik'sStalker, RiverTear980, zukofan2005, InsanityByDefintion, Akefia Bakura, and Dimensional Void.**

**So this is the end of what I call the introduction arc: when Bakura reunites with characters from the former book. Next chapter, things are going to start kicking into high gear and we're going to get some more knowledge about the Thousand Spell Book. ****As for Mai's past with Vivian, that will also be explained in chapter 3.**

**As for this next part of my author's note, if you've read the note in the first chapter of Resurrection (which, by the way, is finally up and I do suggest you check it out), you already know about this so you can skip ahead.**

**I've been thinking lately about the wiki sites that can be found on the internet. For those of you who don't know, wiki's are like wikipedia, but for a more specific topic. There's a bacon wiki, a Doctor Who wiki, a Star Wars wiki, a Yu-gi-oh wiki, and loads of others. Just google them and you'll find loads of examples.**

**So my question is: would you guys get some use out of a wiki for The Others? I'm going to create a pole for you to cast your vote and at the end of the month, I'm going to see what you guys think. I'm not going to promise one, even if the pole says that 'yes' to it (as I have no idea how easy or difficult it will be to maintain one, let alone if it will cost anything to set it up), but I will definitely try if that is the answer. So cast your vote, if only for the reason that I love to hear from you guys and like to hear your feedback.**

**Until next time, my lovelies,**

**AlcatrazOutpatient**


	3. Where Cold Cases Go To Die

**The Others: The Second Year**

**Disclaimer:** Yu-gi-oh! Duel Monsters is owned by Kazuki Takahashi, Studio Gallop, Nihon Ad Systems, TV Tokyo and 4Kids Entertainment. All names were changed to the characters of this fandom in order to protect the real people involved in the following incidents.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 3: Where Cold Cases Go To Die<strong>

_Monday, October 16__th__, 2017_

"I think I could get used to this."

"Not as bad as you thought, huh, Leon," I grinned as small sparkles intertwined themselves around his fingers. Leon looked on, amazed at them and their existence, awed at the thought that they came from him.

"This is awesome!" He looked ready to jump up out of his seat with excitement.

I looked around at the ribbons that were floating around my head, making one of them change into a fish. The others dissolved, leaving the finned creature swimming around my head.

It was weird seeing a fish moving in the air. Under normal circumstances, it would be flopping on the table, gasping for air. But instead, there it was swimming. Just swimming…just…heh.

I wondered what it would be like to see that. The fish seemed to drift down to the table in front of me, laying down like it was on a plate for me to eat.

I was hungry, but not for fish. There was something else and –

"Bakura, what the hell are you going?"

Marik's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. I blinked and looked down. The fish illusion was practically having a seizure, preforming bone-breaking movements that would be impossible if it were an actual being. I blinked again and it disappeared.

"Sorry. Don't know what came over me," I laughed nervously.

"This isn't the first time this has happened," he whispered. "Over the summer, you did that thing with the kitchen knife."

I looked away, mumbling that I didn't know what he was talking about. But I did remember.

Ishizu had this rule that if I was going to stay at their house, I was going to learn how to cook so that I could make supper once a week instead of paying rent. I was using a knife to cut something (I couldn't remember what exactly) but I stopped paying attention for a moment and nicked my finger.

I healed it in an instant, but there was some blood left on the knife. I thought about cleaning it and then I found myself…well…

I licked the blood off. Marik caught me, but that wasn't the only time I'd done something strange.

A few days after that something else happened. I never told Marik because I knew that he would freak, but I preformed a Summoning in my sleep.

And it wasn't just Sangan. No. It was Sangan, Change of Heart, the Witch of the Black Forest. Even Dark Necrofear stood in that room. And _him_, too.

Diabound. But he was Dark God's Summon, not mine. The only time I'd ever Summoned him was in May and that was when I was merged with Dark God. I didn't understand how I could call him, but he was there, invisible and intangible but I felt him. I knew he was there.

I didn't go back to sleep that night after I woke up. To be completely honest, I just stayed up and talked to them about stuff like it was completely ordinary.

"And you're doing the tapping thing with your hands again. Bakura, you said that the side effects would go away after a while, but they're getting worse," Marik looked incredibly concerned. "You haven't been sleeping well, have you?"

"I've been sleeping just fine," I hissed back at him, taking my hands away from the table so that they were under control and my fingers weren't beating out sets of six on the surface.

"Not really," Leon supplied. His voice made us both jump as we realized that he was listening into our conversation. "You toss and turn in your sleep and around three in the morning you went for a walk last night. You didn't come back until five and even then you didn't go back to bed. You just sat at your computer and watched YouTube videos." He shrugged at my shocked expression, "I'm a light sleeper. You woke me up a lot last night."

"Are you serious? Are you actually serious?" Marik looked between Leon and me. The kid nodded nervously, still worried about being around him. Marik fumed, "Damn it, how long have you been hiding this from me?"

"Not long," I lied. In reality, I hadn't gotten a full eight hours since I merged with Dark God. I tried to brush it off, "It's fine. I'm fine. Really."

"Dark God didn't get much in the way of sleep either," Mana muttered from across the table.

I glared at her, "And how would you know that?"

"I looked him up over the summer," she answered guiltily.

"Magic erased everything about him, so that's not possible –"

"There are records if you know where to look," Mai admitted. "And our dreams tell us stories, too. Once I realized that Magic actually erased his image from my dreams of him and those sinking ships, I realized that it wasn't Atem who sunk them. She was watching Dark God kill those people, not killing them herself. I bet he was right behind her, but we can't see him because he's been erased –"

"You looked me up?" I growled, unable to believe this. Why in the world would they do something like that? I was fine! There was nothing wrong at all.

"She didn't look you up. She looked Dark God up," Mai corrected me.

"I know that. What did…what did I say?" I asked, worried at the answer.

"You said that she looked you up," she said. "Why did you say that? What's going on in your head?"

"I – I don't…I'm fine. Really. I'm just fine," I looked away. "Class is over. Come on, we should go."

I got up and moved towards the door. Leon followed as he usually did; I didn't even need to turn around to see that, I just knew and I didn't know if it was because that's what he always did or because I could feel a brown fire behind me.

I didn't go to the cafeteria. Instead, I went back to my room. Leon closed the door as I started to pace erratically.

"Are you alright?" He asked softly.

"I said that I was fine," I snapped, but then immediately felt bad about it. Leon wasn't the cause of the problem. Maybe I just really needed to get some sleep. I'd only gotten a few hours last night, before I woke up and took a walk. And by 'took a walk,' I meant creepily sit in the corridor outside Atem's bedroom in hopes that being in her general vicinity would calm me down. It worked a little, but I didn't know what I needed to be calmed down from.

I wasn't worried or anxious. I wasn't paranoid – well, not excessively paranoid, only moderately so. And there was nothing that I was running from (currently). So why was I getting like this?

"Who's Dark God?" Leon asked.

"A crazy son of a bitch," I grunted. He raised an eyebrow at my language. "You'll get used to the swearing, just…if you use any in front of your dad, don't point it back to me, alright?"

"I've heard worse," he shrugged, grinning a little bit. I rolled my eyes.

"And here I thought that you went to a sheltered private school."

"Either way, who's Dark God?" He asked again.

I looked away, "He's dead. He's been dead for almost 300 years."

"Is he like Touzoku to you?"

I blinked, surprisingly unsurprised, "They told you about him, didn't they?"

"Yeah. Dad explained when I got home from school that day we met. Is Dark God like Touzoku?"

I nodded, "Just a hell of a lot crazier. Touzoku…well, his mind is clearer than Dark God's will ever be. I could distinguish my thoughts from his and now…now things are just so jumbled. I've even got a few thoughts now that I'm confused about whether or not they're mine of Touzoku's. I don't know…I'm not crazy."

Those last three words were said with more desperation in them than I'd planned to explain.

"Okay. But if they're your reincarnations, then why are you getting memories from them?" Leon titled his head to the side, "How would you even be talking to them?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, reincarnation doesn't work like that – theoretically, of course. Reincarnation just means that your soul is put into a different body – like a dog or a tree," Leon explained. "And I don't think you're supposed to know what happened in their lives, not exactly."

I frowned, "How do you even know this?"

"I've spent a lot of time in the Library of Congress," he smiled. I was kind of jealous.

"Of course, this is all theoretical, because I bet that the people writing those books were Normals and didn't know about anything magical," Leon covered his tracks well.

"If there's anything that I've learning in the last few months, it is never to underestimate a Normal. They know a lot more about magic then people give them credit for," I explained.

"But then…does it bother you? Them? Those people in your head?"

"Not usually. I mean, I used to think that they were just voices, but then I discovered that they were actual people so I felt less freaked out," I told him.

"That's pretty cool," Leon grinned.

"You've got a weird definition of cool, if you're including me into it," I scoffed.

"Have you ever considered taking sleeping pills?" He suggested.

"I don't need medication," I snapped at him.

"They're not psychiatric drugs or anything – they're over-the-counter stuff. My dad takes them whenever he can't sleep because of stress," he said.

I still didn't like the idea of being reliant on medication, but I muttered that I'd look into it. I didn't need pills, damn it. I was fine.

Completely and utterly fine.

* * *

><p><em>Thursday, October 19<em>_th__, 2017_

I knocked twice, waiting for an answer. She was in there, I just knew it. I needed to talk to her. I wasn't fine any more.

The door opened up and maroon eyes blinked up at me, "Bakura? What…something's wrong."

Atem stepped aside as I stumbled in, staring dumbly at the four walls around me. Her room was still a mess, just like I remembered it to be from last year.

"Bakura, what happened?" She repeated again, laying a hand on my arm.

"I just…I think I just said something in Portuguese," it didn't seem like much, but it was the last straw. I couldn't take this anymore. I really was turning into Dark God.

"I don't understand. How did you learn how to do that?" She asked.

"It's part of the bleed over I get when I merge with one of the spirits. I noticed it last time when I could understand Japanese, but this time…it was Dark God. I merged with Dark God in May and he's taking over my head," I half expected my reflection in the mirror to start gazing back at me with his wicked smile and insane bloody eyes.

Atem jerked away violently, "Dark…Dark God? You…with him? He – you…"

"He can hear everything you say, see everything I see, so choose your next words carefully," I could feel him, even now, moving like a snake inside my mind. He wanted to touch her and it made me feel sick because I knew what he did to her during his lifetime.

Dark God was nothing short of a monster, but for some reason he was still one of the good guys. He fought against the Orichalcos, in the name of Magic and the human race. But how could what he did be justified as being right?

Atem clenched her fists and steeled herself for a moment before looking up at me, through me. Towards him.

"I'm not sorry that I made you what you are," she said. "But I am sorry about how everything turned out. You never should have had to die the way you did."

Of all the things that she could have said, that shocked Dark God the most. He had not been expecting her to apologize, like she was to blame for something.

I – I don't…I don't understand. Why is she saying that? My Queen, she has done nothing wrong! She can't do anything wrong! I don't understand – WHY IS SHE SAYING THAT? WHY?

He rages quieted down as Touzoku grabbed him and forced him to become calm. Dark God's breath was ragged and panicked, his mind more of a mess than ever. He shook and shivered, shaking his head in denial.

Did My Queen not like my final gift? He whispered, Did I do something wrong?

She didn't want to see you dead, Dark God, Touzoku whispered to him. She wanted you to live.

Live? Dark God sound confused, After what I did? She wanted me to…but what I did, you said it was wrong – that I'd hurt her. I don't understand.

That Crazy Girl is a woman and women typically do not make any sense, Touzoku chuckled. Are you calm now?

Yes.

I focused by on Atem, "He hurt you. He said that you kept saying no the last time you were together."

She didn't answer my question, but moved on to the next, "Of all the spirits you had to choose from, why him? Why would you willingly merge with Dark God? You must have known what his mind looked like."

"I knew. But I also knew that he would be able to stop the Gigas and that Gurimo guy, so I chose him," I explained my reasoning.

Atem didn't approve, but sighed and moved on, "What made you think that you spoke Portuguese?"

"I say things sometimes in a different language, but without using the translation spell," I explained. "Mana caught me speaking it. I meant to say something about the newest Summon creature that I'd met in class, but then it came out as…something not English. It must have been Portuguese because that's the language that Dark God speaks.

"And that's not all. I can't sleep more than four hours a night, I keep doing this tapping thing with my fingers, and…um," well, this was going to be embarrassing to admit, but damn it, I had to tell her because it might mean something, "Dark God was and still is obsessed with you. And ever since I got back here, whenever I can't sleep, I come up here and just sit outside your room because it's calming. I'm sorry; I know it's weird and creepy, but I think I'm turning into him."

"You merged with Touzoku in March and Dark God in May. I think that you're only getting like this now because you've been like this for so long. So, yes, you are going to become like Dark God," I swallowed hard at that revelation, but Atem continued on, "but at the same time, you will also become more like Touzoku."

The weight on my shoulders seemed to lessen a little bit, "What makes you say that?"

"You mentioned sitting outside my room," she smirked as I blushed. "Dark God didn't used to do that. Touzoku did."

I felt the samurai twitch at the mention of his little secret, How did she…she never mentioned that she knew…

"None of the others got a lot in the way of sleep, Bakura. And you've also gone through a very traumatic experience recently. Maybe that's still affecting you?"

"But then what about the tapping? And the speaking in Portuguese thing?"

Atem frowned, "I'm not going to deny it: Dark God did have a habit of tapping in series of sixes when he was in his more lucid moods. As for the language…hmm. Tell me what you said."

"I said that I met a new Summon. The Duke of Demise," I said.

"No, that's in English. Say what you said before," she stopped me.

I closed my eyes, trying to think back to what had happened half an hour ago. I must have been speaking Portuguese, I had to have been.

I opened mouth and spoke, "Eu conheci uma nova creature, a Duque de Demise. I met a new creature, the Duke of Demise."

But it felt wrong coming out.

"Well, that's definitely Portuguese," Atem said forlornly. "It's just another bit of the bleed over, Bakura, it doesn't mean –"

"No."

"I'm sorry?"

"Those weren't the words I used. I didn't say…what was it…"

I concentrated again, focusing directly on how I had pronounced each word. I spoke without thinking and when I opened my eyes, Atem was gazing at me with a look of utter horror.

"What?"

"Is this some sort of joke?" She took a few steps back, "How did you…you never should be able to…"

"What did I say? Atem, come on. What's going on?" I moved towards her, desperate for answers.

"I'm going to say something. Repeat it back to me," she took a breath and spoke. Some really weird words came out of her mouth, but some of them were in English so I could get the general premise.

"You said something about a calendar."

"Something about a calendar?" She repeated my words back at me, "You didn't get all of it?"

"No. Why? What are you testing me for?"

"Try again," and she switched back to the weird language. I caught mentions of a sea and a jungle. I repeated what I'd heard back to her.

"That's impossible," she gasped. "You understood…Bakura, I wasn't using a translation spell there. I was speaking in my own language."

My heart stopped as it hit me. I wasn't speaking Portuguese.

"I was speaking Mayan?"

"Terribly, but yes. I could only make out a few words because a lot of it was just gibberish. And don't even get me started on your accent," Atem shook her head. "But it wasn't only that. You could understand it as well."

"But I can't do that. You never taught me how to translate other languages back so that I could understand it," I didn't understand how that was even possible. How did I suddenly pick up Mayan of all things?

"Even if I had, you won't be able to use it, Bakura. The reverse translation spell uses Enchantment magic, which you aren't able to use."

I reached inwards, asking the spirits if any of them had ever been taught the Mayan language before, knowing full well that it would be a long shot.

Mayan? That's the Empire M'lady belonged to, Game Master mumbled. She spoke sometimes in the language, but never taught it to me. Not that I wanted to learn it.

What's Mayan? Soul Steeler asked at the same time.

Alright, well, that was a complete dead end. Not even the spirits that I'd merged with knew the language. So how the hell was I speaking it?

"You can speak and understood Japanese and Portuguese flawlessly, though, and I'm sure that that comes directly from Touzoku and Dark God. But you don't even notice that you're switching to Mayan," Atem looked up hesitantly, but then backed away. She turned towards her desk, where there were mountains of paper dumped on it, shuffling through them with shaking hands.

I wondered just what was going through her head because I thought that we might have been thinking along a very, frighteningly similar line. There was only one version of my past selves that knew how to speak the Mayan language: the first me, the slave boy who died and had been resurrected. The boy who looked just like me – who had the same name, the same everything.

Atem told me once that your soul decided what you looked like on the outside. But at the same time, she said that no two people – not even identical twins – had the same soul. It was why everyone looked different. And yet…

I looked exactly the same as the first version of myself. With Leon's talk still churning in my mind and something that I remembered Thief King saying long ago – "I don't think you're a regular reincarnation, Leader" – I wondered, if maybe, just maybe, something else happened that night that Atem attempted to bring the first me back to life.

I wondered if she was underestimating her own success when she said that she'd managed to bring him back long enough for his heart to beat six extra times. I wondered if it was still beating right now, inside my body.

"What are these?" I asked, moving beside her and looking at the papers.

"Notes, mainly, from meetings. There's one a few days from now and I want you to come," the shaking in her voice decreased as she continued to speak. "You need to be brought up to speed on where we'll be going first."

"No offence to Atlantis or anything, but why can't we just leave now? If I'm going to be fighting in this, why not all the time?" I asked.

Atem frowned, "We think that the Orichalcos has planted a spy in our midst."

"What?"

"A spy. And the worst part is that he or she is relatively high in the command chain because the Orichalcos never would have known about my spontaneous visit to the White House in March. We don't know whom, so we've kept the knowledge that you've joined us under wraps. Only the people who've been with us since the beginning know the full story," she smirked just then. "Of course, I'd love to see it on their leader's face – whoever he is – if he knew that you were back."

"So the leader's a man," I mumbled. "What else do we know about him?"

"He's very paranoid. Barely any of his followers know that he even exists, let alone who his is. Thankfully, we've got a spy of our own that's worked his way up. However, even our guy has only seen glimpses of him. We have virtually no intel on the man at all. Our spy doesn't even know his name," she shook her head in disappointment.

"Well, that's just great," I grumbled under my breath. She shot me a look.

"We're fighting as hard as we can, but we are significantly smaller in numbers compared to them. They outnumber us, several thousand to one," Atem sighed. "But the point of everything is that because of the Orichalcos spy in our ranks, we are trying to minimalize your contact with so that we're able to keep your general presence a secret. The meeting will be with only the most trusted people in our inner circle."

"Are you sure they can be trusted? I mean, if you've managed to get someone up into the Orichalcos's inner circle, there's no way that to say that the Orichalcos couldn't have done the same thing," I pointed out.

"I've tested them myself," she sent me a look that shut me up really fast. Yes, just because I couldn't use Enchantment magic to save my life didn't mean that she couldn't.

"But even if they do find out that I'm here, what difference would it make? Its just me," I shrugged.

"Just you? Just you? Bakura, do you have any idea what you are saying?" Atem looked at me, astounded by my words. "Just the names of your past incarnations are enough to strike absolute fear into the hearts of the enemy, let alone the knowledge of what they actually did. The thought that such a powerhouse being on our side is terrifying for them. You're a wild card and our ace in the hole – we want to keep you a secret for as long as possible so that they don't target you."

"Target me?"

"The Orichalcos has some very good assassins on their side," she said with a grim face. "We have an entire team watching Mokuba so that they can't get rid of him – and they want to. He's stirring up quite a commotion at the White House and is the one responsible for getting Zigfried in power."

"Vivian's team. My sister is on that one," I murmured. So that's what she was doing: stopping assassination attempts and keeping a Resistance fighter in the White House. Amane sure was getting into the whole idea of fighting, but I hadn't seen a single bit of combat since May. I was getting a bit antsy.

"Vivian is one of the best captain's we've got. I haven't known her to lead a failed mission. She's one of the people who never leaves someone behind, alive or dead," I could tell just from her voice that Atem really liked this woman. But I remembered my conversation with Mai from a few nights ago.

"I heard that she used to work with Mai."

Atem frowned, "Yes, she did. About a year ago."

"They were captured."

"Yes, they were."

"Atem," I said firmly. "Tell me the bastards who did it are dead."

"They are all dead. Mai made sure of that," her words were cutting, full of anger and hatred.

"Good," my voice was equally deadly. Something swelled in my chest and I knew that I was glad that those people were dead. And not for a second did I regret that fact.

I didn't know if that that the Touzoku or the Dark God in me, but I honestly hoped that it wasn't. I wanted that to be the me in me, that abhorrence of those kinds of people. I wanted it to be my own hate because I wanted it to be my own morals that guided me to that thought.

But if it wasn't – if it truly was Touzoku or Dark God that was influencing me – maybe that wasn't such a bad thing. People like those men deserved to die anyways.

* * *

><p><span>Mai and Vivian used to be lovers before their capture. That in itself is pretty amazing because of Vivian's status as a Normal. Somehow, she was able to not only bypass the Ward, but get to the point where she was comfortable enough to engage in a sexual relationship with an Other. Such cases are not unheard of, but are incredibly rare. Love is the final thing that can conquer the Ward.<span>

But then the incident occurred. I never got a full story out of either of them, but from what I've gathered, Vivian gloated Mai's would-be rapists into focusing on her instead. While Mai remained untouched, it nearly destroyed her to hear the screams that filtered through to where they were holding her.

Afterwards, while they were sleep, Mai slipped out of her shackles and killed the six men with nothing but her hands and a broken shard of a glass bottle. There was no magic, no fancy Combat maneuvers – just pure rage and brutality.

I don't know specifically what happened afterwards, but I do know this: the two fell apart and barely spoke to each other. I also know that Vivian asked Pegasus to create a mental barrier around the memories from her capture so that she could continue to function as a captain. She knows what happened to her, she just can't remember what was done to her that night.

She kept saying that there would be a day when she would ask for that barrier to be removed and she would mourn then. To this day, I don't know whether or not that was a display of strength or weakness. I don't think I want to know.

* * *

><p><em>Saturday, October 21<em>_st__, 2017_

"So there are at least fifteen concrete references to the Thousand Spell Book in David Gozaburo's old notes and maybe sixty other indirect ones," Noah pointed to the pages and pages of text behind him on the screen in a serious tone that I'd only heard from him once before. "I'm sure that someone's provided you with copies of said references, so you can take a look at them."

I stared down at the package of papers that had been given to me at the beginning of the meeting. I noticed that Atem didn't have a copy. I flipped it open to the first page and read one of the lines at the top of the text: 'The Book is definitely not in the White House. I've had people search the building from top to bottom and have turned up nothing. The Horseman will not be pleased.'

I was in a meeting room on one of the higher floors of the KaibaCorp building. Kaiba and Kisara sat at the head of the table, beside which Atem and I were sitting. Mokuba hadn't been able to make it. He was currently sitting with one of ZTV News's many political correspondents, talking about the importance of young people getting out to vote.

Also in the same room was Jaden Yuki's team – a group of people that I'd met in May. Chazz Princeton had been the driver of the truck that had helped us escape to relative safely. He'd nearly bled out from a stomach wound, but looked fine right now. He kept glancing at Alexis Rhodes, his teammate who was standing beside Syrus Truesdale.

Neither Mai nor Odion were there, but Pegasus was. Same thing with Ishizu and Mahad. At the end of the table was a man, not much older than Mai. He had the hood of his sweater over his head, so I couldn't see much, though I could tell that he had bleach blonde hair. He was fiddling with his phone when he came in and was still doing it now.

"There is also talk of Gozaburo knowing the Orichalcos leader, who he calls 'The Horseman'," Noah continued to explain. "I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that he's talking about the Horsemen of the Apocalypse and not an actual horse-man or horse-ridding-man or something like that, but that's just my opinion. Now most of Dave's other works don't say anything other than he went through a tonne of failed attempts at locating the Book and bitching about the Horseman for cutting off his stone supply, but if you'll all turn to the fifth page, things will start to get interesting."

"What kind of interesting?" Atem leaned backward in her chair.

"'I started looking into government itself and it seems that they've known of the Thousand Spell Book for longer than either side of this War.' They knew? Mahad, is this true?" Kaiba turned towards my Illusions teacher in surprise.

"I put the word out with my CIA contacts to confirm this and it turns out that Gozaburo was right. The government did know and they've known about the Book since the Constitution was signed," Mahad glanced at Atem with a frown. "Did they ever tell you about this? I know that you were here during the War of Independence."

"If George and the others knew, they kept it secret from me," The Immortal looked calm, but her eyes were a different story. She was searching through her memories for something – anything – that might have been mentioned by the founding fathers of America that would reveal that they had knowledge of the Book being here.

"Either way, it is not a well known secret at all. Odion found it in a paper file in the back of _those_ archives. You know, the ones where cold cases go to die miserable and lonely deaths," Mahad revealed. "Either way, we got access to it and we got a location."

He tossed a piece of paper onto the table. It spun for a few seconds before Pegasus (for he was the closest) reached across the table and grabbed it. His eyes darted across the page before they widened.

"No way…" he whispered.

"What is it?" Jaden reached over and snatched it from his hands. His jaw dropped, "You're freaking kidding me! Roswell, New Mexico?"

"Holy crap," I swore. "Roswell? The Roswell? As in the one with the alien conspiracies and the government cover-ups?"

"The very same," Mahad couldn't keep a grin off his face. "That is, of course, the good news. The bad news is that the government faked the alien story in order to move the Thousand Spell Book to a more secure location. What location that is, we have no idea."

"Ten bucks says it's the actual Area 51," I murmured.

But Noah shot me down, "Sorry Necro-man. Page three, eighth line."

I turned to the page he indicated and read that Gozaburo had gained unrestricted access to the top-secret military base and had searched the place from top to bottom. No Book.

"I still don't see why we're bothering to find the damn thing in the places where it's been and not longer is," Chazz growled.

"We're looking for the path at the moment, not just the Book," Atem explained. Her hands clenched in her track pants and a smirked worked its way onto her face, "Our other goal is to track down the Horseman himself. The Book will lead us to him."

"Like following breadcrumbs," I grinned, my lips pulling back viciously. We had a trail. And now, it was time to hunt.

"Exactly, but the thing is we don't have much in the way knowledge about what these breadcrumbs will look like. All we know is that the path started in Roswell in 1947," Mahad nodded to Kaiba. "Orders, Seto?"

"Mother – I want you and Bakura to go to Roswell at the end of the week. Find out anything that you can about what happened there. If there is anyone who is still alive from that time, ask them questions about it. I want to know what went on," he glanced at us out of the corner of his eye before turning his gaze to the man at the end of the table. "Could you –"

"I'll get you satellite photos of the area by nightfall," the man's voice was smooth and steady. He didn't look up from his phone once.

"Good. Noah, I want you to pull Amane from her duties for this one and get me any files that the government has on Roswell. Mahad, I want any and all information you have on this on my desk by tonight," Kaiba addressed the man.

"Consider it done," Mahad grinned.

"Jaden, I need you and your team to continue scouting DOMA. Magnum is hiding something and I know it's connected to the Orichalcos – what with his military contracts," he starred down the young team leader. "And no funny business. This operation goes by the book, do you hear me?"

"Yes, sir," Jaden saluted eagerly. Behind him, Chazz and Alexis rolled their eyes in tandem as Syrus looked sheepish.

There was a beeping sound and Kisara shuffled in her seat for a moment, pulling her mobile out of her suit pocket. She frowned at the screen before her eyes popped, eyebrows disappearing into her silver-blond hair.

"Noah: ZTV News, right now!" She ordered.

The programs moved to the side of the screen as he tuned into the news broadcasting station.

"…I repeat, the man threw himself in front of Senator candidate Mokuba Kaiba as he was making his way out of our station. There is no news on the man's current state of health, nor that of Mr. Kaiba's – though we can say that Mr. Kaiba was not shot," said the woman who was breaking the story.

"Vivian says that Abe's fine – he took the bullet in the shoulder," Kisara looked down at her phone again, probably to read a text message that was sent to her. "Amane's hacking into the video feeds of the cell phone cameras in the area as we speak, so that they can find the shooter."

"Damn it," Kaiba swore, slamming his hand into table with enough force that it shook. "Find who did this and tear them apart - tell Wong that."

"Already have," Kisara said as she sent a text back to my sister's team leader.

"The assassin's name is Yubel," Jaden voice was uncharacteristically harsh; his eyes were dark pits of anger.

"How do you know that?" Atem questioned.

It was Chazz who pointed to the screen, "'Cause she could never resist showing off, the bitch."

The reporter was interviewing a young woman on the screen. Her dark hair was cropped short around her ears as she gushed at the camera, doing her best imitation of a complete ditz.

"I really hope that Mr. Kaiba's alright," she puffed out her chest to give the viewers a look at her cleavage. "I'm gonna vote for him in the election, 'cause I totally love what he stands for. You know, that thing he talks about. The one with the kids."

"We don't know her last name, but Yubel is a complete psychopath that gets off on having other people do her work for her. We've met up with her a few times and she likes to use Enchantment magic on unsuspecting Normals, turning them into her own little hit squad," Alexis glared at the woman on the television. "That, and she's also got a thing for Jaden."

"Yubel doesn't have a thing for me! Chazz, back me up here. Tell them that I don't attract psychopaths…why aren't you saying anything, Chazz?" Jaden grumbled.

The dark haired man visibly fought to keep the grin off his face.

"I've sent this information to Vivian. She's keeping an eye on Yubel and is waiting for her to get out of the crowds so that she can strike," Kisara informed the group. Kaiba relaxed visibly for a single moment before becoming the strict and rigid leader he'd always been.

"You've all got your assignments, so go out and complete them. Ishizu, come with Kisara and I for a moment," he stood suddenly and dramatically, walking out of the room in four long strides. Kisara and Ishizu followed after him, heads held high and shoulder's straight.

I found myself in Atem's room after the meeting, going over what I'd need to bring for this journey.

"Don't pack everything you own in that bag of yours. If we have to leave it behind for one reason or another, I don't want you coming back here for nothing," she shot me a playful look, though I wasn't quite sure what it was for. "The thought of you owning but a single set of clothing is too much for me to handle."

Okay, now I knew what she meant by that look. I tried not to turn red. Really.

"Shut up," I grumbled half-heartedly. I looked at her for a moment before voicing my question, "Kaiba's the leader of the Resistance, isn't he?"

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

"Well…why not you? You've been fighting it longer than he has, so why aren't you leader?"

Atem sighed, gazing at me with eyes filled with something I didn't recognize. It made me feel like I'd said something wrong. But when she spoke, her voice was steady, calm and controlled.

"You know the reputation that I have amongst Others. Many see me as a criminal for my curse. Those that don't still acknowledge the danger that I bring wherever I walk. And then there are those who just think I'm a crackpot fool of a woman who doesn't know what's what anymore because I'm clearly senile. No one wants a leader like me, so Seto leads in my place," she told me.

"I'd follow you," I said in response.

She chuckled softly, "Well, that may be the truth, but you're not exactly an unbiased source of information."

It hit me then what Strings had told me a few days ago – how 'everyone' knew about my crush on Atem. It seemed that 'everyone' included Atem herself. She knew, holy crap, she knew.

"I…uh, well, that's…" I stammered, "I can…explain?"

"There's no need," she smiled at me and my heart skipped. "It's fine. I don't…I don't really mind."

"You don't mind? That's…that's it? That all?" I didn't know if I was angry or just frustrated with her. I didn't understand what she was saying or what she wanted.

"I don't mind because, well, why would I?" Atem's steady gaze faltered for a second and she looked away before bringing her gaze back. This time I could see that her face had a slight flush to it. My mind made a connection and I realized that she wasn't angry at the fact that I liked her that way.

Atem was flattered.

"I just don't want this to effect what we've got now. I don't want to jeopardize anything," I admitted. I didn't know what to do if I was to suddenly enter a relationship with Atem. I didn't know if that's what she wanted or if it was what I wanted. This was the first time I'd cared about anyone in this way before (though the level of affection I felt for my sister was still debatable in my mind) and I didn't know where I was supposed to go with it.

"It won't," she assured me, taking my hand in hers. "I don't mind, Bakura. I really don't mind it at all."

Kiss her, you moron, Soul Steeler grumbled in the back of my mind.

But I didn't, not this time. I backed away, taking my hand from her grasp. Atem didn't hold it against me, though. Instead she just continued to smile as she turned and went back to her desk, shifting through her papers.

I let myself out, whispering a goodbye. I tried to calm myself down in the lift downstairs. Atem was flattered that I liked her. That was good, wasn't it? Or was it bad? I didn't know.

"Women are so weird," I moaned to the ceiling. The lift door pinged as they opened and I made my way towards my room, thinking only of collapsing into my bed headfirst and sleeping until noon tomorrow.

Of course, with my current sleep schedule, I was up again at four in the morning and slinking around outside Atem's room for some semblance of peace as I came to terms with the fact that I was now an insomniac.

* * *

><p><strong>Hello!<strong>

**I'd like to thank those who reviewed for the last chapter: ilovemanicures, Aqua girl 007, RachelelovesRichtofen, InsanitybyDefinition, RiverTear980, Malik'sStalker, Akefia Bakura, and Akikee.**

**So a lot of things were revealed in this chapter. As usual, if you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'll get back to you as soon as possible.**

**Just to clear a few things up about Mai's past with Vivian, though. While Vivian is a complete lesbian, Mai isn't. She can be, by technicality only, be considered bisexual, though she doesn't define herself as such. She likes both, but she leans more towards women then men.**

**Also, my exams are coming up, so I have no idea when the next chapter will be up. If I get some time to write in between it all, I will do so. I'm not going to abandon this story, so don't worry if I don't post for a while.**

**Until next time,**

**AlcatrazOutpatient**


	4. Chow Mein

**The Others: The Second Year**

**Disclaimer:** Yu-gi-oh! Duel Monsters is owned by Kazuki Takahashi, Studio Gallop, Nihon Ad Systems, TV Tokyo and 4Kids Entertainment. All names were changed to the characters of this fandom in order to protect the real people involved in the following incidents.

**Warning:** Darkshipping (BakuraxFem!Atem) and sexual situations

_To Eric  
>My brother in all but blood<br>Dry land when I'm drowning_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 4: Chow Mein<strong>

_Wednesday, October 25__th__, 2017_

"This is ridiculous," I grumbled as Mai tugged me down the street. Marik and Mana flanked me on both sides in case I made a break for it. "I don't need them, damn it!"

"Bakura, when your twelve year old roommate comes to my room completely out of his mind with worry because you've passed out while trying to explain to him how to actually Summon a creature, it stops being ridiculous. You need to sleep or you're not going to be able to function properly," Mai gave my arm a rather vicious tug, nearly causing me to trip. Mana grabbed my other arm to steady me.

"It's for your own good, you know," she smiled sweetly, though there was a sadness to it. "We worry about you. You almost died on us once, Bakura. I don't want to see you like that again."

I frowned in thought, before remembering that Mana and the others had participated in the battle in Domino City months ago. They'd shown up after I'd defeated Gurimo the Infected and had seen the true extent of the injuries that I'd had because of my fight with him. Mai had been the one to stabilize me and heal my most prominent wounds.

I'd stopped resisting to Mai tugs. She turned back to me in confusion when she noticed, royal purple eyes questioning as her blonde curls settled around her shoulders. She let go and let me walk on my own.

"So…sleeping pills. Where do we get those?" I asked.

"The local drug store sells them, so we should be able to get them there. And you're going to use them, I swear to god, or I will shove them down your throat," Mai threatened.

"Yes, mom," I rolled my eyes. She looked startled for a second at my statement, but then a grin split across her face. Mai pulled me into a one armed hug and giggled into my hair.

"You can be a real sweetheart sometimes, Bakura," she laughed as I blushed. Even after all this time, Mai still had her ways of making me go absolutely red.

"You two getting married anytime soon?" Marik joked as her offered Mana his arm.

"Probably Friday next week. You can be the bride's maid, Marik," I threw back at him, smirking the entire time.

"You're just pissed because I could pull off the dress and still look amazing," he cackled. "You, on the other hand, would look terrible in drag."

"I'm not even going to ask how you know that," I sighed as Mana burst out into hopeless laugher.

* * *

><p>"<em>I know what you're doing," I heard a voice hiss from behind me.<em>

_I smirked, turning, "And what do you think I'm doing, your Majesty."_

_Dartz loomed over me, attempting to be intimidating and powerful. But I knew how he was becoming more and more unpopular amongst the nobility and royal line of Tikal. It was one of the perks of being the slave of the crown princess; you heard everything about anything political._

_He was loosing favour. Now that it was looking unlikely that a royal marriage would work out, Dartz was desperate. He was demanding a royal woman to become his wife for the treaty to go through. But for everyone that was presented before him, after staring at her for hours on end, he rejected each and every one of them. It got to the point where no one wanted to even deal with him anymore._

_King Acalan was planning on giving him an ultimatum: "Provide me something can use or get out of my country."_

_The man was finally starting to see that Atem was a damn good soldier and an asset to have on the battlefield. It had taken him long enough, too. And not only that, but he'd called off the hunt for the 'mysterious Necromancer' who had aided her in defending the palace during the raid by the children of Toltex. I took some pride in that._

"_You're the reason why she won't agree," Dartz's voice was deathly quiet._

"_I have no idea what you're talking about. My mistress is the crown princess and I am but a humble slave. How could my opinion, whatever it may be, affect her decision?" I kept my red eyes focused on his golden ones, showing him how I was lying through my teeth._

"_I could tell Acalan, you know. I could tell him what you're doing to his daughter at night, the little slut. I'd get you killed."_

"_You do that and I tell him about you, Creator," I threatened him in return. "I wonder how he'll take that. In fact, I wonder how your darling wife would take that, let alone your father. Do they know what you are?"_

_He actually took a step back at that. Containing his outrage and shock, Dartz spat back at me, "It is only because of you filthy humans and your thrice damned creator that I am like this. If he hadn't forgotten his place, if he hadn't thrown us from our homeland, then I wouldn't be wallowing around in your disgusting hovel."_

"_If you think that about us, then why are you insistent on marrying Atem? She's one of the filthy humans you despise so much," I countered._

_But Dartz only seemed to smirk, "She may be human, but that isn't all that she is. That is what makes her worthy."_

_And with that, the Ancient shoved passed me and walked away, leaving me to wonder what he meant._

* * *

><p><em>Sunday, October 29<em>_th__, 2017_

"So this is it," Leon sighed sadly. "I've got to go back."

"Yeah. You spend two weeks at your normal school and two weeks here," I answered him, going through all of my things and deciding what I was going to take with me to Roswell.

"And you're going with your master to be trained in…what again?"

I hesitated for a second, coming up with something that was both semi-truth and semi-falsehood, "Necromancy."

"That's your Overpower, right? The thing that allows you to talk to the dead?"

"Pretty much," I answered.

"So there's another Necromancer out there," he looked up at me from where he was sitting at his desk. "Do you know if there's any other people like me?"

I remembered what Kisara had told me about Death Touches, "If there is one, he or she doesn't want to come into contact with other people. Atlantis has some really good ways to find people, but they couldn't find any Death Touches out there. I'm sorry."

"Oh. Well, even if there were, I could understand why they….they wouldn't want anything to do with other people. It would be for their own good, I guess," Leon mumbled, glaring at his gloved hands. I sighed and stalked over to him. He'd never be able to use his Overpower properly if he continued on like this.

"Leon," I placed a hand on his shoulder, completely disregarding what could happen to me if he jerked to the left and the skin of his neck touched the flesh of my wrist. The boy practically turned to stone under my fingers, "You're not a monster. Yes, you were given this terrible thing, but you can make the best of it. You have to live with this or it's going to eat you alive."

"I kill with just a single touch, Bakura. How do I learn to live with this?" He looked like he was on the verge of crying. "My mother…she…she didn't deserve to…god…."

I smiled sadly, fishing out my phone and punched in the number Kisara gave me if I needed to get in contact with her. I told her that Leon and I were going to be a few minutes late to PORT out of here like we were supposed to.

"Where are we going?" He asked.

"We're going to go talk to someone," I told him.

Leon had mentioned the name of the graveyard that his mother had been buried in and it wasn't far from where we were now. When he realized where we were heading, he stopped and refused to move. I picked him up, threw him over one of my shoulders, and kept moving.

"I'll scream," he hissed. "I'll bloody scream and then you'll get arrested for kidnapping and other crazy things."

"Wouldn't be any worse then what I'm already wanted for," I laughed. He stiffened.

"Already?"

"Don't worry, I was framed."

"How is that supposed to stop me from worrying?"

"We're here," I set Leon back on the ground in front of his mother's headstone. He didn't try to bolt, but he stood rigidly where I'd placed him.

"Leon," the spirit-woman beside the gravestone whispered through tears. Her fiery hair was cropped short in a bob and her form clothed in a hospital gown. She reached for her son, but his hands slipped right through him.

"Lady Carol," I nodded in acknowledgement. She jumped, spinning around to face me.

"You can see me?"

"You can see her?" Leon looked up at me, grabbing my sleeve and stepped closer to me.

"Yeah…um, that was an answer to the both of you, by the way," I said, looking between the two of them. I quickly explained to Leon's mother just what I was planning to do. Like most of the spirits I met, she caught on really quickly – almost sensing the power that lay just beneath the surface of my soul.

I pulled her into my body, liquid strings of magic attaching themselves to her soul and dragging her inwards. I felt my soul become dethatched from my body as any sensation left me. I opened my eyes, seeing the familiar blurriness of possession that was immediately followed by sharp intensity.

"I'm – I'm alive," the former First Lady breathed in air for the first time in months. "How is this possible?"

"Bakura, what happened to you?" Leon gapped, "You're…you're see-through! And you're on fire!"

"Yeah, that happens. Technically, I'm just a spirit right now," I explained.

"Does that mean that you're dead?" He really liked asking questions, I noticed.

"Not really. When your mother passes on, I'll be able to return to my own body."

Leon stiffened and turned almost robotically towards his mother. His face was ashen; his freckles standing out against his stark white skin. He shrunk in on himself, hiding in his woolen sweater and scarf.

"Leon," his mother whispered softly, moving forwards. "Leon, what's wrong? Tell me."

The boy hugged himself, shaking his head as he backed up behind me.

"Leon," Lady Carol sighed sadly. "Please?"

Her softness brought Leon to his knees. Tears spilled from his eyes as his small form was racked with heaving sobs.

"I killed you," he said hoarsely.

"What? No! Leon, you didn't do anything – I just got sick. You had nothing to do with –"

"But I did! It was my fault that you got…I gave you typhus, mom! That's my power: I kill people with a touch. I'm a Death Touch," he screamed, his voice raw with emotion.

Lady Carol seemed to freeze as the realization of what her son just told her dawned on her. She turned to me, hoping that I would shed some light on this family reunion gone terribly wrong.

"Death Touches are Others who have the ability to transfer disease with a single touch," I told her, still unused to the fact that talking while I was like this didn't require for me to breathe. "It's completely involuntary, of course. Leon couldn't control it."

"Waldwolf…he died shortly after we got him," Lady Carol took a step back.

"Waldwolf?" I asked.

"Our dog. It's tradition for the president to get one when they move into the White House," Leon murmured almost automatically, like he was reciting it from a textbook. "I didn't…I didn't realize…I didn't mean – oh god!"

He hunched forwards and for a second, I thought he was going to vomit. I reached for him, but my hands slipped through his shoulders. I was unable to touch him.

Leon didn't puke, but he seemed to be frozen in position – paralyzed, for all intents and purposes. I frowned, suddenly realizing that this wasn't such a good idea.

"I held you when you cried for him. I touched your hair, kissed your forehead. That's when…" Lady Carol finally understood what had happened to her. She seemed utterly conflicted as for what to do next. Would she run away or would she stay? It was Leon's guilt that kept her in this world; there was no doubt about that. But was this the right way to go about having him let it go? I didn't know, but I had to try.

"Leon, you're not a murder," I told him. "It was an accident. No one blames you."

I shot his mother a look, hoping to get the point across that her son needed to be able to move on if she was to do that. But Lady Carol was too busy staring at Leon to notice me.

"I am, god, I am. I killed – I'm so _sorry_," his voice cracked in an utterly painful way.

Something changed in the First Lady's eyes when she heard her son apologize. Her gaze was filled with something that could only be described as forgiveness. It was a look that I'd never seen in a Normal before, even amongst those whom I'd made friends with. It was pure, unconditional forgiveness.

"It's okay," she said, abet hesitently. "It's – it's okay. You didn't mean to, I understand, Leon. I forgive you."

I thought that Leon stopped breathing just then. I sincerely thought that he'd had a heart attack and was about to keel over. He just didn't move at all – not a single bat of an eyelash or a twitch of a finger. There was nothing, nothing at all.

And then he launched himself at his mother, barreling into her with all the force of a desperate son trying to reach the women who was the center of his entire life. Leon clung to my ragged clothes that donned his mother while she remained in my body like his life depended on it. The noises that came from his mouth didn't seem to be human in origin – they were gut retching and horrible to listen to. But I stayed, all the same.

Because this taught me something. Not all people were going to be able to let go as quickly as Joey Wheeler had when confronted with the spirit of his dead boyfriend. No, this showed me just what my power could do. It could cause great pain because, sometimes, some people weren't just weren't ready to let go – even if it was for the best.

Lady Carol was careful as to where she put her hands when returning her son's embrace. She looked upon him sadly, knowing that this was probably it for them. She'd move on and Leon would remain here until his own death. It wasn't right – she should have been there to see him have kids of his own – but it was what was going to happen. She had to pass into the realms beyond death.

"Exissto procul pacis," I whispered. "Be at peace."

Red fire erupted around the woman as her eyes closed in peace. Just before she disappeared completely, I heard her whisper, "Goodbye, Leon."

Then I felt it – feeling, and dear god, it was amazing – the tug on my very soul as I was returned to my body. When my vision cleared, Leon was still clinging to me, crying just as fiercely as he had before. I closed my eyes and tugged him closer, letting him get it all out.

For a moment, I wondered if this was what it was like to be a father.

* * *

><p><em>Wednesday, November 1<em>_st__, 2017_

Roswell, New Mexico was, in one word, hot. Caught in the middle of a heat wave, the sun glinted off the buildings and made the many roads look like they were rivers of concrete. It was hell for someone like me.

Covered from head to toe in thick clothes, a hood pulled up over my head, and sunglasses (that I'd stolen on the way in from an unsuspecting high school student) covering my eyes, I looked completely out of place next to the other people passing by on the street.

I looked especially out of place next to Atem, who had on a jean skirt I recognized from my sister's old wardrobe and a thin, white, _low cut_ t-shirt that clung to her body in all the right places. Her hair was hidden underneath her brown wig as she sucked on the straw of the slushy she'd swiped from a stand that had been set up down the road.

I wasn't staring. Really. It's just she looked hot. Like, _really_ hot.

"So, you sure this is the place?" She asked and I tried to ignore the drop of sweat that was running down her collarbone and in between the valley of her breasts.

"Uh, yeah. Definitely. I mean, this is the International UFO Museum. If there's one place to learn about what happened in Roswell, it's here."

"Hm," she hummed before frowning. "Is something wrong?"

"No. Why?" I asked.

"You've been looking at me weirdly since we got here. Have I got something on my face?"

Actually, yes, she did. A hint of strawberry slushy was glistening on the corner of my mouth and it both intrigued and disturbed me as to how badly I wanted to lick it off. What was I: a fucking dog?

"No, you don't. Come on," I looked both ways before crossing in the middle of the street, heading towards the entrance of the museum. Once inside – thank god for the invention of air conditioning – I slapped the kid in the ticket booth a ten dollar bill and received a pair of adult day passes that let us into the main area. I grabbed an information brochure from a stand and scanned through it.

"So according to this, the museum was founded by a pair of people who claimed to have been witnesses of the whole alien thing," I said. "A former military officer named Walter Haut and a mortician named Glenn Dennis. Haut was the one that first announced that the military discovered a 'flying disk', while Dennis apparently talked to a nurse about the supposed alien corpses."

"Except we know that there were no aliens, so why would they claim such a thing?" Atem asked.

"Dunno. Maybe for the fame?" I shrugged.

"Maybe. Or maybe not," she continued to walk through the exhibits. I trailed behind her, nose this in the brochure.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, I've been thinking lately about some of the things that George kept saying while we were fighting the English – no offense or anything, but you come from a country that is incredibly infected –"

"I'm not English. I'm Welsh," I corrected her, not wanting to be mistaken for something I wasn't.

"Well, the British Empire, if you have to call it something. Doesn't matter, though. Whether it was the Welsh or the English, we still had to remove them from this land," Atem continued on. "But George kept mentioning something about a star that had fallen south of the colonies that needed to be protected. I think he might have been talking about the Book when it descended to Earth."

"Well, New Mexico didn't become an American state until after the Mexican-American War, so maybe you're right," I shrugged.

"How'd you know that?"

"I was a very bored high school student with a lot of time and a lot of books."

Atem chuckled softly at me before pulling me to the side of the path that we were blocking. I glanced down at her fingers, currently intertwined with mine and had to fight to keep a smile off of my face.

"There's something else that's bothering me about this whole thing, though," Atem whispered in my ear.

"What is it?"

"Those creatures, standing under the disk there," she pointed to the main exhibit of the museum, which showed four glorified grey aliens standing under a flying saucer that was the emitting sweet smelling mist associated with smoke machines. "Don't they look familiar?"

"If by familiar, you mean 'They look like aliens out of a classic sci-fi movie', then yes," I answered.

"No, no, there's more to it," she squinted. "They look almost like a pair of Shadow Creatures I ran into several decades ago."

Shadow Creatures? Like the ones that I could Summon into the world with a few whispered words into the back of my mind? But if that were true, then what were they doing near the Thousand Spell Book?

Isn't it obvious, landlord, Akeifa spoke in the back of my mind. They were guarding it.

I relayed this information onto Atem. She nodded, "That makes sense. Tell him I said 'Thank you.'"

I could tell that Akeifa heard because I felt him trip over his own feet and smash head first into the wall of his Soul Room. Somewhere else in my mind, Soul Steeler burst out laughing at his expense.

"So they were guards…but then, why did that man mention that autopsies were performed on them? Can Shadow Creatures even die?" I asked.

"Yes and no. They're physical bodies will remain on earth if they are damaged too badly, but their souls will eventually return to the Shadows and they will be created anew. Those things that your historians call dinosaurs are really the skeletons of Summons who were 'killed' during the Fall of Mu," Atem smirked. Now that was pretty awesome. All those theories about how the dinosaurs were whipped out were wrong: they'd never died in the first place.

I smirked, "So, this guy, Dennis – he must have heard about those that autopsied the bodies that they left behind." I checked the brochure again. "Hey, he's still alive."

"What?"

"Dennis. Glenn Dennis, the mortician. He's still alive, though he's not in charge here any more. I mean, the guy's over ninety years old, so…" Atem shot me a look, reminding me that she was several _thousand_ years older and I was not to mention senility. "Right. Shutting up now."

"So, how are we going to find this guy?" She rolled her eyes, nudging me in the arm with her elbow but not letting go of my hand. My grin simply got wider.

"I know just the way."

* * *

><p>I plugged the chip into the side of my tablet.<p>

"My sister gave me this before we left to go meet Leon for the first time," I explained as Atem sat just behind me on the bed. We'd rented a room for the night in a cheep motel a few blocks off Roswell's main street. I'd used the money that I'd pulled from an ATM using the fake debit cards invented by the mysterious FiRe_StArTeR Amane had mentioned. The room only had one bed, but so did every room in the building so there wasn't much in the way of choice.

"What does it do?"

"From what Amane told me, it's basically a copy of the FBI's database. You can find just about anyone on it – that is, if they've got some form of paper trail, which most people do," I explained as the application launched. I turned to look at Atem, though the look of confusion on her face told the entire story. "Just image a giant book full of profiles of every person in the US."

"I can do that," she rested her chin on my shoulder. I could feel her breath on my skin. It was a bit distracting.

"Y-yeah. Here," I typed in Glenn Dennis' name into the search option. "And he was born in 1925…add in the alien stuff…let's see what we can get."

After taking a few minutes to sort through the entire database, Glenn Dennis was revealed to be currently living in a retirement home on the north side of Roswell. I showed Atem the address. Her eyes flicking over the screen for a good three minutes before nodding.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

"No. Why?"

"You were frowning. Is something about his information wrong…or…"

"Or?" She tilted her head to the side and I noticed that her hair had grown out a little; now falling just passed her shoulders.

"Atem, can you read?"

She flushed with embarrassment, "Of course I can read."

"I mean, can you read English? I know you can read your own language, but what about this one?"

"Sort of. Seto and Mokuba have been teaching me," she explained. "I can read it, it just takes time."

"Oh." Well crap. Last year, for Christmas, I'd bought her book. Nice going, moron. Get her something that she couldn't really enjoy.

"We should go check this Dennis person out in the morning. For now, let's call it a day," Atem suggested. "Are these the kinds of rooms that provide food or do we have to go out and get some?"

"I doubt we'll get room service in a SNO like this, though I'm sure we could get some Chinese ordered or something" I hauled myself up and rummaged through the bedside table, hoping for a take out menu to appear. Low and behold, a flyer for a local Chinese delivery joint was revealed.

One order of fried rice, egg rolls, chow mein, ginger beef and moo shu pork later, I found myself realizing I had forty minutes to kill. In a seedy motel. With Atem.

Dear god, my mind was just drowning in the gutter today.

"So what now?" I tried to keep my voice from cracking, I really did. Of course, I completely failed at that.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm going to take a shower. Try not to walk in on me naked again, okay?" Atem winked and I didn't even know what colour my face turned but it must have been a weird combination of pasty white and bright red.

I stood there for three minutes before I came to my senses. Atem was a goddamn tease and she bloody well knew it. I didn't know if this was a bad thing or a good thing – didn't know if she just liked to wave what I couldn't have in front of my on a stick or was actually expressing her interest in me.

I ran my hands through my hair, frustrated as hell. Why did she have to be so damn confusing? Couldn't she just say whether or not she wanted this? But then again, I didn't know what to do if she did say yes, so that was an obstacle that I'd have to overcome as well.

Maybe she could teach me? Now that was an entertaining thought.

But how far would she be willing to go? I knew that Atem wasn't a virgin. I knew for sure that she'd slept with Touzoku, Dark God, and maybe Soul Steeler if Game Master's angry words meant anything. So she knew how to do some things I didn't. I mean, the farthest I'd ever gotten was two minutes of making out with a shirtless Tea Gardner on my kitchen floor, but Atem was a hell of a lot more experienced then that –

_My Queen. She was there, gentle and kind and beautiful – lying beneath me, naked as the day she was born. She was the only one, the only one that I'd ever wanted, ever needed like this. My Queen, my mother, my goddess and temple. And how I would worship her if she allowed me to do so – _

I snapped out of Dark God's memories, breathing deeply through my nose. That was the last thing I needed to see right now. I hadn't really thought about sex very much until I met Atem because no one had ever captivated my interest before.

I flopped back down onto the single bed in the room, palms covering my eyes as I groaned. This was so fucking stupid. Seriously, I was here to help in the tracking of the Thousand Spell Book and save the goddamn world from destruction, not to be wishing to make advances in my sex life.

I noticed that the water had been shut off and I shot up, immediately turning my back on that particular door. I heard Atem's voice through the door as she sung a song I didn't recognize, stumbling around the tiles for what I assumed was clothing.

The door opened and I heard her say that I could turn around. When I did, I saw that she was wearing exactly what she went in with, except the dampness of her hair was leaving damp patches on her white shirt.

I wanted to say something just then, though I didn't know what. But nothing came out, leaving my jaw to flap uselessly until I decided to stop trying. Atem's lips twitched into a smile.

"If you want, you can…" she nodded her head towards the shower. "There's soap and stuff in there, so…uh…well…"

So I could end up smelling exactly like she did now? Which, frankly, was rather noticeable for some reason. Atem's clean scent wafted over and make the hairs on my arms stand up as I shivered.

"I can…take the floor tonight," I offered randomly.

"Oh," she looked to the side, almost disappointed. "Well, if that's what you want."

"I didn't know that I…had another option," my hands clenched in the sheets in an attempt to keep them from leaping forwards against my will towards Atem.

"There's always another option," her words nearly gave me a heart attack. I knew that we'd slept in the same bed before, but for some reason this felt different. Hell, it was different. My sister wasn't sleeping in the other room; we were in alone and no one was going to walk in at any moment.

I didn't know who made the first move, but Atem must have climbed onto the bed and I must have tugged her towards me at one point. But none of that mattered because suddenly, I had The Immortal in my lap and was kissing her as if my life depended on it.

One of my hands disappeared into her hair, but the other moved downwards, pulling her hips forwards so that they settled against my own. _Her_ hands, contrary to mine, didn't stay still at all. One moment, they were on my shoulders, the next were clawing at my back, and the next…the next…I stopped thinking just then, figuring that it would be better to just enjoy.

This was insane. She was insane. I was insane, I had to be. There was no way that this was possible. There was no way that this could be happening. But if it was a dream, it was a really, _really_ awesome one and I didn't want to wake up any time soon.

I moved my mouth from hers, sucking and biting the skin of her neck. I didn't even know that someone could just _taste good_, but apparently Atem could and I didn't think I'd be able to fully appreciate anything that didn't taste like her ever again. Her hand tugged at my shirt and then – holy fuck!

A jolt that was part amazing and part shock struck me and I realized just how hard I was, my jeans far too small for comfort. And Atem was had just adjusted herself so that she could _grind against me_. I gasped and clutched her hips as I had a serious debate with myself as to whether I should stop this or let it go on.

Then Atem moaned my name and all rational thought went out the window as I came to the conclusion that I effectively having sex is clothes on.

I desperately wanted to do this with clothes _off_. I wanted Atem. I wanted her naked, underneath me and on top of me and against a wall and bent over a desk. I wanted to be inside her and make her say my name like that over and over again until she came with such force that she'd never even consider being with anyone after me.

And then some fucking asshole decided to knock on the door. Whoever it was, they were going to die.

I groaned in frustration. I was not going to let this interrupt the best goddamn moment of my life. I'd never been this turned on in my entire life and Atem's rocking was becoming more and more erratic in against me and –

"Fucking hell!" I yelled as the knocking turned into loud banging. Atem let out the sexiest whine I'd ever heard in my whole life before climbing off of me (to my eternal disappointment) and walking towards the door on shacking knees.

It shouldn't have felt as good as it to know that she was barely able to move because of something I'd done.

"What?" Atem wrenched the door open and I heard a yelp. Something dropped on the pavement outside and I heard the scurrying of fleeing footsteps. A few seconds later, she reappeared with a large bag in her hand.

"Food's here," she informed me. I blinked stupidly at her for a moment, unable to process much beyond the fact that she looked thoroughly debauched.

"Food?"

"Yeah. Chinese."

I wanted to say I wasn't hungry for anything that wasn't her, but at that exact moment in time my stomach decided to make a complaint, grumbling loudly.

I let out a strangled sound, flopping back onto the bed and muttering very offensive things about the delivery person's family and cursing his utter lack of timing.

Later on that night, I found myself downing chow mein like a starving man while Atem dug into the rice. What had passed between us moments before wasn't spoke of at all. It was like it never happened.

I didn't know why I didn't bring it up. But when I curled up against Atem that night, eyes already drooping from the fast-acting sleeping pills I'd taken minutes before hand, I wondered, for one fleeting second, if I should have.

* * *

><p><strong>Hello all!<strong>

**I'd like to thank those who reviewed for the last chapter: InsanityByDefinition, Rainy-Ray-Rachel, ilovemanicures, zukofan2005, Aqua girl 007, Akikee, VivienneLaFaye, Akefia Bakura, and RiverTear980.**

**I'm admitting it: I am a total science-fiction fan. Doctor Who, Star Trek, Star Wars (I actually went to the same high school as one of the actors, which is really cool), just to name a few, are my absolute favourite things to watch. Combined with my utter love of fantasy (Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl, Supernatural, and Merlin, I love you), a connection with The Others Series and the Roswell UFO crash had to be done. It just had to be.**

**So this chapter also was the first in a long while that contained a warning involving sex. It's not going to be the last. I'll be posting warnings like that whenever there is something that is beyond a kiss occurring, so you'll know what's coming if you're not into reading lemons.**

**On a more interesting note, if I have enough time to complete what I have in mind, I should be posting something either later tonight or early tomorrow in Odd Happenings. Dark God lovers, you will not want to miss this one.**

**Can't wait to hear from you all, and the next chapter will be really exciting, I promise. I'm introducing two new characters and I utterly love them.**

**Until next time,**

**AlcatrazOutpatient**


	5. I'm Male

**The Others: The Second Year**

**Disclaimer:** Yu-gi-oh! Duel Monsters is owned by Kazuki Takahashi, Studio Gallop, Nihon Ad Systems, TV Tokyo and 4Kids Entertainment. All names were changed to the characters of this fandom in order to protect the real people involved in the following incidents.

_To Ethan  
>Forever an inspiration<br>Peace amongst the hurricane_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 5: I'm Male<strong>

_Thursday, November 2__nd__, 2017_

"So, how are we going to pull this one off?" I said with a raised eyebrow.

The retirement facility that Glenn Dennis was staying in was a pretty little place called La Villa. According to a few of the internet sites I'd checked out on the guy, he because a shell of his former self due to an illness he contracted a little over five years ago. It was a miracle the man was still hanging on.

"I'm not quite sure, but I can tell you that it'll involve a lot of memory modification and Enchantment magic. I never really like using that branch – people shouldn't be controlled like that," Atem answered.

"You'll be in charge of that, of course," I rolled my eyes before my gaze settled on one of the many nurses that walked in and out of the building. "Maybe if we steel one of the uniforms, that'll allow us to get in. We could pretend to be college students working here on a co-op program or something."

She blinked at me and I could tell that Atem understood very little of what I just said. I would have explained it to her, but a security car pulled up beside us and a man in a uniform rolled down the window. He leaned forwards and addressed us.

"No loitering, you two, or I'll call the truancy officers," he threatened.

"They still have truancy officers?" I frowned. Budget cuts in Domino City had those guys cut from the program.

"Well, yeah…uh, shut up and go…away?" The man's eyes became glazed over and his head tilted to the side. Atem's smile beside me as a little too sweet.

"Please continue on and behave like you cannot see us," she instructed, her voice thick with magic as she shooed the man away with a wave of her hand. He had the same dazed look on his face as he rolled up his window and drove away.

"Come on, if we continue to stand here, we're going to get noticed again," I nodded to the entrance of the building. Atem followed behind, though she glanced back at the retreating car to make sure that it was still moving away.

We snuck in through a back door used by kitchen staff to avoid having to check in at the front desk. One inside, we made our way under the cover of an illusion and into the main corridor of one of the basement levels. I checked around the corner to see if it was empty; upon seeing that it was, we padded lightly on the carpeted floor and slipped into one of the stairwells.

"The person in charge of this place should have a list of all the residents," Atem hissed. "We should find their office."

"It should be on the main office. Come on, this way," I began to bound up the stairs in pairs. A door on an upper level opened and I heard footsteps making their way down. Well, shit.

Atem and I glanced at each other, panicked before she said, "College students work here, right?"

I grinned savagely. So a little undercover work was going to be necessary. Cool.

The poor kids didn't stand a chance. We knocked them out with a blow to the back of the head – not permanently damaging, but would keep them unconscious for a while. We stripped them of their uniforms and shoved them in a closet just off one of the stairwell doors, locking the door to keep them in.

After hurriedly changing into their nurse scrubs, Atem and I made our way up to the main level. I scanned around the entrance area for the office of the person in charge while she looked for anything else suspicious.

"In here," I whispered, pointing to a door with a plaque for President and Chief Executive Officer Granger Cobb on it. After sensing that no one was in the room, we slipped inside.

"Check his file cabinet. I'll keep watch," Atem pointed to his desk. I nodded and began to rummage through the papers. I let a giant folder labeled 'D' thump onto the desk. I ruffled through it until the name Dennis, Glenn popped up.

"Got it," I made sure to put every thing back. "He's in one of the far wings. Let's go."

* * *

><p>The whole place smelled like death. Not the kind that I first came into contact with when I did battle in the middle of a banquet hall in May. No, this was different. That was the scent of death that shouldn't have happened. This was the scent of death that was inevitable.<p>

The people that lived in the rooms we passed where old, almost obscenely so. They were just barely holding on, thanks to the assistance of modern medicine and pure will power. Many of them didn't even know their own names or how to take care of themselves. It was a miserable life and I didn't know how people could actually subject their loved ones to this.

But Atem passed by an open door and gave the woman inside – a frail tiny thing that looked so delicate that a breeze in the wrong direction could shatter her – an almost envious look. And I remembered that Atem's wish, after the war against the Orichalcos was over and done with, was to die looking as old as she actually was.

I had to look away. I couldn't understand that longing that she had for death.

"In here," I placed a hand on her shoulder, nodding to the room that was supposed to be Dennis's. Atem swallowed, eyes bright with excitement (this had to have been her first solid lead in years), and opened the door.

It was a simple room, painted a pale shade of green and wide windows that let in sunlight. Dennis lay on a bed in the middle of the room, staring blankly at the ceiling. There was a tray beside him with a half-finished pudding cup on it.

"Glenn Dennis?" Atem asked. The man didn't react.

"Mr. Dennis?" I tried, stepping forwards, "Can you hear me? We need to ask you something."

The man's jaw clenched and unclenched, but gave no indication that he'd heard us.

"It's about the crash, the one with the aliens in 1947. Except we know there were no aliens. We know what the government was really doing that night," I bit my lip, looking to Atem for help.

She sighed softly, making her way over to the chair beside the man's bed. A moment after she sat down, she pulled off her wig.

Dennis went rigid, neck snapping towards her and burying half his face in his pillow. His breath came in short pants, "Y-y-you're…"

"Hello, Mr. Dennis," Atem smiled at him, indicating for me to sit beside her. As I came closer, his eyes widened in recognition.

"Im…im-impossible…" his body became racked with wet coughs. I lay my hand on his chest and pushed Medicine magic into his lungs, hoping to help him in some way.

He's very sick, Touzoku murmured. Disease has rotted through his mind and body. He's in his final days.

Death. Death. And more death. Always death. Always and forever. It is the end and the beginning, the prologue that leads to Hereafter, the Next World, the Other Side, Dark God's murmurings filled my mind. I shook my head to clear my focus.

"Mr. Dennis, please. We know that the government faked the Roswell crash to move the Thousand Spell Book. We need to know where it went," Atem urged him to speak.

Dennis' hands shook as he reached for her. Atem clasped her own around his, holding him tightly. His eyes closed in shame, "C-can't."

"…Mr. Dennis –"

"S-show…wi-wi-will show…mind…"

Atem sucked in a breath before grabbing my hand and closing her eyes in concentration. Then –

"_This way! Quickly! We have to move," Alien Grey urged us along, pointing with impossibly long fingers towards a spot in the woods as he ran ahead. The Shadow Creature was small, but moved so quickly that even the trained soldiers had a hard time keeping up with him._

_There was a team there already, digging through the dirt with shovels and spades. I got down on my hands and knees to help. I was just a doctor, a mortician pulled from regular duties to treat anyone in an emergency, but I'd be damned if I didn't try to help them get this thing out of here as soon as possible._

_The nails of my fingers scraped against something that wasn't earth._

And then –

_That poor nurse. She was so young, so beautiful, and yet she was killed trying to move it. Naomi Self, they said her name was. I didn't know. I never asked._

_She gave me some sketches of what was inside the Book, in case it was lost. I burned them when I knew that it was in the new safe location. And I lied to the public; said it was aliens and made a career off of it. If only they knew. If only the people of America really knew that God was dying and the Book was all that could save him._

_But now wasn't the time to read it. The Ultimate Weapon wasn't ready yet. Heavenly Sound was still asleep._

And then –

"_Tell me where it is, mortal, and I will let you live!"_

And then –

"_Mr. Dennis, please. We need to know where it is. He's already been here and he's got a location, damn it, we can't loose this!"_

_The man speaking was an Asian boy with streaks of blonde in his wild hair and clothed in a well-worn leather jacket. A spunky red headed girl stood beside him, ever watchful and protective._

"_Yusei, we don't have time for this. The man's mind is gone and we can't stay here for much longer –"_

"_Akiza, I know. But this is the best lead we have. We have to get it out of the country," Yusei shot back._

"_Martha," I whispered, telling them what I told _him_. "The Thousand Spell Book lies with Martha."_

I took in a shaking breath as I came back into reality. Atem was already leaning over Dennis, shouting, "Martha? Martha who? Tell me where she is! Tell me where the Book is!"

But Dennis' body seemed to slump into his bed, his eyes dull and glassy. My heart skipped a beat, "Atem, he's dead."

"What?" She gasped, her hands flying to his pulse. From the look of sorrow that flashed over her eyes, I was right.

Glenn Dennis was gone, taking the true identity of the mysterious Martha with him.

"We have to get out of here quickly," I urged her, tugging at her arm. Atem slowly got up and we headed for the door. The moment we closed it behind us, we knew we were in a whole load of trouble.

"There! That's them! Over there! Get 'em!" Cried the two employees whom we'd knocked out in order to take their uniforms. Atem and I looked at each other before running back inside Dennis' room and locking the door.

A loud bang on the other side made the door shudder. Whoever was on the other side was trying to break in. My fingers twitched at my sides with anticipation.

"I think we can get out of here, but we need to move fast," I told her.

Atem's grin was anything but full of humour, "I was thinking the same thing. On three?"

"Yeah. Three!" I shouted and the two of us ran for the door, breaking the hinges and slamming the two security officers behind it into the wall. We climbed up and over the plank of wood, keeping them beneath us. Atem jumped up and kicked on of the college students in the face, knowing the boy backwards as I took care of the girl.

We bounded down the hall as fast as our legs could take up as the security guards got to their feet. I jumped off of a wall to get around another worker carrying cart of food and continued to run. Atem ripped open the door to another bedroom.

We ran through it, scaring an elderly couple who were having tea with their grandchildren as we rushed out onto their balcony. Using that as an escape route, Atem jumped down to the ledge below us and into the apartment a floor down. My smile had far too many sharp teeth in it as I followed along behind.

We made a break for the stairwell once more, leapt from railing to railing as footsteps thundered above us. Dashing out into the main entrance area, we shoved our way through a pack of seniors playing botchy-ball. I winced as one of the old ladies fell to the ground with a crunch.

I crashed into Atem's back. She'd stopped just outside the main doors. I swore and blinked the stars out of my eyes. Weird, they didn't seem to be going away.

Oh. That's why. They were cop car sirens.

Well shit.

"Yugi Mutuo! The building is surrounded! There's no where for you and your accomplice to run!" One of the people pointing guns at us shouted. She was a woman with a Kevlar vest over her blouse. Three letters were emblazoned across her chest: FBI.

"This doesn't look good," Atem grumbled.

"No kidding. Any ideas, because I'm fresh out," I hissed back.

"Turn yourself in and I promise that you and your girlfriend will be given a fair trial," the woman called again. I blinked and then realized what she said.

"I'm male, damn it!" I yelled. The fed actually looked shocked, as did a few of the cops beside her. Bastards.

"The offer still stands," she called again.

"And just who are you?" Atem shouted, "Why should I trust you at all?"

"What are you doing?" I whispered under my breath.

"Buying time to come up with an idea," well wasn't this fucking perfect.

"I'm Special Agent Sherry LeBlanc. I work for the FBI. Why don't you come over here so we can talk," she called again.

"I don't know if I can do that, Sherry. You see, the FBI and I haven't gotten along for a very long time. I know for a fact that I'd never even make it to trial if you brought me in, let alone have a fair one," Atem grinned cheekily.

A few white vans were pulling up and out of them popped reporters and their cameras. Several of the police officers tried to keep them as far away from the front lines as possible.

I noticed a four-door sedan pull up just behind the van for ZTV news. I couldn't see the driver's face but a light flashed from inside, flickering on and off. Atem's eyes widened.

"Close your eyes and ears and unclench your teeth on three," she instructed.

"What?"

The man in the sedan got out on the car and chucked something into the air. It landed in the space between cops and us with a clang of metal.

"One…two…THREE!"

I clasped my hands over my ears, shut my eyes, and (at the last possible millisecond) remembered to keep my jaw slack. Something incredibly bright and obscenely loud exploded. People screamed and Atem grabbed my hand, urging me to run. I opened my eyes and bolted towards the mysterious car.

"In! In! Get in, damn it – gh05twr1tt3r, you owe me so much for this," the man grumbled as we scrambled into the back seat.

"Who the hell are you?" I had barely slammed the door closed before he was hit the gas pedal

"A friend of the Resistance, though that's not really important now. I'm a bit focused on escaping at the moment," he adjusted his rear view mirror and for a moment I thought I was seeing the impossible. There was no way that Marik Ishtar was driving this car. The man was too old to be Marik, but they practically had the same face.

"Bag at your feet. Open it," non-Marik instructed as he took a sharp turn around a corner, the back wheels of his car skidding and squealing. Atem reached down and unzipped the bag, pulling out what looked like a canister of gas. "Press the button and throw it out the window quick. Don't let any get inside the car."

We shared a look, but did what he said. Hey, the guy had risked his ass to save ours already. He couldn't be that bad.

And after seeing what his toys could do, I decided that he was also a badass.

The canisters contained some kind of green smoke – what it was, I didn't know. But it _ate_ through the metal of the police cars that were chasing us, leaving nothing but the cops inside to skid to a halt on the concrete on their asses. The guy then turned on the freaking autopilot on his car and started to mess around with his phone. The traffic lights that we passed through started to turn green, clearing a path for us.

"Nanites," he said off handedly.

"Pardon?"

"Nanites. Microscopic robots that can be programed to do a variety of things. In this case, they deconstruct various types of metals," he explained. "I'm Namu, by the way. Wait a second, got to change the colour of this car – can't risk being tracked. Need to switch the license plates, too."

He fiddled with a few buttons on his dashboard and I heard something clunk in the general direction of the trunk.

"Who the hell are you?" I asked again, this time more demanding, more ready to threaten him with my knife.

"I told you. My name is Namu. I'm a friend of the Resistance," he repeated.

"You were at the meeting," Atem's voice was low, controlled, and slightly suspicious.

"Yep," Namu – if that was his real name – nodded.

"You sat at the far end with your hood up," she continued.

"That's me."

"You don't really give out a lot of information."

"Nope."

"Are you doing this to be infuriating or for security reasons?" Atem frowned.

I could see his grin in the rear mirror, "A bit of both."

"How do you know my sister?" I questioned him.

Namu frowned, "Who's your sister?"

"gh05twr1tt3r. You said you owed her for coming here. How do you know her?"

"gh05twr1tt3r's a girl? Weird. I though she was a guy," he said as the car turned another corner, entering a neighbourhood full of near identical suburban houses.

"Answer the question," I ordered.

"Met her online. She gave me a suggestion for one of my inventions. Pretty cool idea. Even helped me write the code for the cards and everything. And you said she was your sister?" Namu reached over the passenger seat to have a look at me. I noticed, for the first time, the main difference between his face and Marik's: this guy's hair was haphazardly sticking up, like he'd forgotten to comb it this morning.

"Yeah. Why?"

"No reason," he turned back.

"You're FiRe_StArTeR," it finally clicked. This man was the person who invented the fake debit cards Amane had been so worked up about.

"That's me. And this is my house," he said as the car parked itself in the garage of a red brick bungalow. He clambered out of it and the two of us followed behind him. Just before he unlocked the door leading into his place, Namu clicked the button on his key fob. The car that I'd been in a few seconds earlier then dissolved in front of my eyes and disappeared into thin air.

"W-what?" I stammered, pointing at the now-empty space in utter confusion.

"I told you. Nanites. They can do just about anything," Namu opened the door an ushered us inside.

"The Resistance sometimes uses this place as a safe house, though not every often. I don't like people walking all over my stuff. You can stay here for a few days, but not forever, alright," he said. "Do you want pizza? I want pizza. I'm going to order pizza. Glitch, order pizza."

"Of course, sir," came a voice from around the corner, sounding almost stereotypically like a traditional English butler. There was the sound of honest-to-god scuttling before Namu disappeared around the corner.

The guy's house looked normal, until you realized that there were cameras everywhere. Wires ran along the base of the walls, all black and blues and reds, like a series of intertwining snakes. And what I thought was a mirror turned out to be some kind of touch screen monitor displaying what looked like the progress on at least dozen downloads.

"Think we can trust him?" I nudged Atem with my elbow.

"Yes. He was at the meeting. His intentions are to aid us in our fight, not to harm us in anyway," she said. "But we've got bigger problems. Namely, the memories that Mr. Dennis showed us."

"Yeah. Someone else got to him before us. Several someones," I growled.

"I didn't see the first person in his memories – only his voice. Did you catch anything?" Atem asked. I shook my head. She cursed briefly, then continued, "But at least we know that some of our people were hot on the trail."

"That Yusei guy? I've heard his name before," I mumbled.

"That's because you have. Yusei Fudo is, or rather was the only other Necromancer on the planet aside from you and I. He was killed earlier this year in Rwanda," she told me. I nodded, remembering.

"In Dennis' memories, Yusei said that if they found the book, they were going to take it out of the country. Maybe that's why they were there. They were hiding the Book," I sat down at the kitchen table, trying to avoid touching any of the half-soldered motherboards that littered its surface.

"Or maybe they were just hiding. Searching for the Book could have put them in serious danger," she frowned. "Why didn't they ever tell Seto? I know that Yusei and him never saw eye to eye, but we could have helped."

"Well, you did say that you think there's an Orichalcos spy in the midst of Kaiba's inner circle. Maybe that's why. They didn't want to risk the information leak," I threw in my two cents.

"And then there's this Martha. The government hid the Book with her, but who is she?" Atem ran her fingers through her hair frustratedly.

"There are probably a thousand Marthas out there today, not to mention all those that are dead and buried in the ground," I grumbled. I'd check the database for her, but since all my stuff was still in the motel and I only had a first name to work with, I doubted that it would be much help.

"Did you say Yusei? As in Yusei Fudo?" Namu had returned, standing in the archway that separated the hallway and the kitchen. I noticed that he was wearing a pair of glasses, ones that he wasn't wearing before.

"What about him?" I frowned.

"He was here – him and his team – a few years ago. They said that they were going to go to the same place I found you guys. That retirement home," he shrugged. The sleeve of the overly large hoodie he wore slipped on his left shoulder. He tugged it back up and continued, "Something tells me that that's not a coincidence."

"How did you know where we were, Namu?" Atem asked, "I know that you knew that we were in the area, but how'd you know we'd be at the home, let alone that we'd need help."

"Didn't I tell you? Your sister got in contact with me and asked me to keep an eye on you. I've had Glitch here follow you two around the city," he nodded to – holy freaking crap! What the hell was that thing?!

What looked like a giant robotic cockroach clicked its way into the kitchen on six metal legs. Its eyes (all _eight_ of them) glowed a steady green.

Atem stared, eyes very wide. My jaw dropped, "W-what is that thing?"

"Thing? I'll have you know, dear boy, that I am the only fully sentient robotic being in the entire world," the robot-bug somehow managed to look indignant. How it managed that, I had no idea.

"Glitch was supposed to be an experimental transformative multi-tool, but then there was malfunction in his programing that made him self-aware. I've never been able to fully replicate it, though. Pretty sad, really – I've got a couple of semi-sentient bots in the basement working on some of my other projects, but none of them are quite as good as Glitch," Namu reached down, letting his robot pet climb up his arm and settle on his shoulder.

"I told Master Namu that there was an incident at the La Villa, something about the international criminal, Yugi Mutuo, sneaking in and killing one of the residents with an accomplice," I felt Glitch's many eyes fall on me. "Of course, the FBI was called in. Master Namu decided to act and get you both out of there. Though the radio dispatch mentioned that Ms. Mutuo's accomplice was a woman…"

My eye twitched. Namu smirked, head tilting slightly to the side as he did.

"You said something about Yusei's team being here a few years ago. Do you know exactly what they were doing here?" Atem stepped forwards, imploring.

"Not really. I'd worked with them before; they were the ones that first contacted me to start working for the Resistance after I went underground in 2014," his hands slid into his pockets as he spoke. He moved forwards, feet sliding on the tile floor of the kitchen. "I owed them a favour, so I let them stay for a few weeks while they investigated a lead on something – I never found out what. I haven't seen or heard any of them since then…well, until the news hit. I still can't believe they're dead."

"Who was on the guy's team?" I asked. Instead of Namu, Atem answered my question.

"Yusei Fudo, Akiza Izinski, Jack Atlas, and Crow Hogan. They were one of the best teams we had," she rested her head on one of her hands. "Yusei, like I've told you already, was a Necromancer and he used his powers more actively than either of us. Akiza was a brilliant Enchanter. Jack was one of our better Combat specialists. And Crow was a Shape Shifter."

"All Others?"

"Up until a few years ago, most Normals didn't want to get involved in 'our' wars," Atem shrugged.

"I was one of the first few to join the cause, after Mokuba Kaiba, that is," Namu informed us, though he stared directly at Atem in a way that was almost accusing. He said nothing about what was on his mind, though.

"Sir," Glitch started speaking again. "A federal agent as well as several local police officers are making their way from house to house, conducting investigations of the premises. They appear to be same group of people that were at La Villa earlier today. Might I suggest ushering these two into the laboratory?"

"That's not good," Namu scowled. "Alright, you two. In here," he opened a door just outside of the kitchen and led us down into the basement of his house. There wasn't a lot down here, just some storage closets off to the left and a small area to the right. There was a couch, a few large beanbags and an X-Box 720 that was hooked up to a television screen.

"Glitch, keep them hidden," he instructed his little robot-bug friend, taking off his glasses. Glitch leapt off his shoulder and scuttled over to the far wall. Namu placed his hand on a picture frame, which turned out not to be a frame at all. His handprint was scanned and a computerized voice asked for authorization.

"User name: FiRe_StArTeR. Password: O-five, O-seven," Namu's voice was clear and precise.

"Access granted," and with that, a section of the back wall slide to the side. Atem and I were ushered inside and Glitch moved quickly behind us. Before the door hissed shut, I heard Namu given an order to the computer, telling it to send the house into 'covert mode.'

I felt Atem grip onto my arm, her nails digging into my skin. I looked at her in concern, only to see her lips becoming thin lines as she surveyed our surroundings. I looked up and thought that I'd just stepped into Tony Stark's laboratory.

The room was well-lit, large florescent lights taking up most of the ceiling. In the center of the room was a series of self-operating robotic arms that appeared to be working on some kind robot boots. The green smoke I'd come to associate with Namu's nanites surrounded the metal plates that made up the leg of the left boot.

"What is this place?" Atem's voice was breathy and nervous. She didn't like technology in general, let alone trust it. This was probably a bit overwhelming for her.

"This is Master Namu's laboratory. He's currently working on a set of boots that will allow those of Normal ability to move with the speed and agility that Others do when they use Combat magic," Glitch answered as it scampered over to a large computer. A cord slithered out of its outer shell and hooked into the computer. "Syncing with system."

After a second of his many green eyes flashing, Glitch called up the cameras that were placed around the house. Namu was visible on the screen second from the left. He was opening the front door to the Special Agent woman that had offered Atem a fair trial earlier today if she would turn herself in.

"Activate microphones," Glitch said and suddenly I could hear what was being said.

"…name is Special Agent LeBlanc. I'm conducting a search for a fugitive that was last seen in the area. I have reason to suspect that this criminal may have broken into one of the houses on this street. May I come in and investigate?"

"Sure, but I haven't heard anything all night so this will probably be a waste of your time," Namu said.

The woman strutted into his house. She looked sharp, with long blond hair that ran stick-straight down her back. Aside from that, though, it would have been difficult to tell that she was a woman. She wasn't exactly curvy and her suit had shoulder pads in it, making the line of her collar broader then it probably was.

"What's your name?" She asked.

"Namu. Namu Ishtar," he shrugged. "Are you going to be long? I've got pizza coming."

"No, not long, Mr. Ishtar," LeBlanc looked behind one of the couches in the sitting room. She moved from camera to camera, until she pointed to the door leading to the basement. I took a step closer to Atem.

"There is no need to worry. Even if Special Agent LeBlanc does come into the basement, she won't be able to find us. Nothing aside from a combination of Master Namu's voice, handprint, and DNA can open that door. You could cut off his hand, and the scanner would reject it because it wouldn't have a pulse," Glitch informed us.

Sure enough, LeBlanc was in and out of the basement quickly. By that time, Namu's pizza had arrived.

"Thank you, Mr. Ishtar. I apologize for taking up your time," she said as she headed back towards the front door.

"It's fine. Want some?" He opened the pizza box and offered her a slice. LeBlanc paused for a second before a small smile worked its way onto her face. She reached forwards and pulled one from the box.

"Pepperoni and mushroom. Good choice," she commented. "Thank you very much."

"Mushrooms? Damn it, not again. Why is it that they always make that mistake?" Namu groaned.

"Don't like them?" She asked.

"Hate them. But no matter where I order pizza from, they always manage to stick them on."

"Maybe it's a sign. Good-bye, Mr. Ishtar," LeBlanc took a bite as she stepped out the door. Namu stared after her for a second before closing it and coming down to let us out of his lab, muttering the entire time about the mushrooms that were atop his pizza.

"Master Namu is quite intelligent, but he doesn't always notice the little things," I could swear that Glitch was grinning. "He always has me order the pizza. I've been putting mushrooms on the order for _years_."

* * *

><p><span>Namu Ishtar is Marik's cousin. His father, Makram, is Marik's father's brother. Makram married a woman named Nadine Caron and he was the result.<span>

Both of his parents are Others, but Namu is a Normal. He's the reverse of most Other children: instead of being magical and growing up not knowing about it, he wasn't magic but had his entire childhood surrounded by it.

But because of his parent's connection to magic, Namu hadn't talked to the rest of his extended family. He knew about the existence of his cousins on his father's side, but he'd never met them before the War kicked into high gear.

Namu, as a child, was the kid who liked to deconstruct things just to see how they worked. When he was seven, he took apart the family toaster _and_ put it back together before his parents realized what he'd done. Then, a few years later, he took it apart again and, upon rebuilding it, he actually increased its efficiency.

At the age of twenty-one, Namu dropped out of Caltech because he'd became an Internet millionaire after creating an app for DOMA phones. He sold the patent for two million dollars and paid off his parent's mortgages and debts. But then something happened, and I'm not quite sure on the exact details of this one, but right now I can tell you he looked into something he shouldn't have and had to go underground.

Between the months of February and November of the year 2014, Namu lived pretty much off the grid and reinvented anything technological that he could get his hands on. He was found by Akiza Izinski when he sold her a chip over some forum that allowed her to adapt magic to technological devices. After being contacted by KaibaCorp and had the explained the Orichalcos situation to him, Namu began inventing for the Resistance.

Currently, Namu is in charge of surveying the construction of most of the tech that the Resistance uses. Kaiba sometimes adds in his two cents, but since he is also in charge of leading the movement and running of a multi-billion dollar company, he leave most of the inventing to Namu. However, his main duty is controlling the series of satellites that KaibaCorp has orbiting the planet.

He's not much of a hand-to-hand fighter (though if he decided to throw a right hook, get the hell out of the way), but if you dare attack him in his home, he'll hand you your head on a platter – and he'll do it with a smile. His bungalow is where he has the advantage. On top of his metal-eating nanite bombs, lazar guns that have a habit of stripping flesh from bone, flash-bang sonic grenades, and Glitch, Namu's house also has a floor that will incinerate any organic material touching it that doesn't have his DNA. He can activate that last option with a push of a button.

Namu sometimes gets hard to read and he doesn't always say what he's thinking, but he's as loyal and trustworthy as one can get. And with his brain constantly running a million miles an hour, he continues to amaze me with his ability to be completely and utterly humble about his mind. He's a nice guy that's been forced into a world that not so nice. And yet, he somehow managed to stay sane.

Or maybe he's just a good actor. I've never been able to tell what he's really thinking, so for all that I know, Namu could be as insane as I am and just simply never shown that side of himself to the world. I don't think I'd ever know if he was.

* * *

><p><strong>Hello again! Really sorry for the wait.<strong>

**I'd like to thank those of you who reviewed for the last chapter: Aqua girl 007, InsanityByDefinition, Rainy-Ray-Rachel, zukofan2005, Akikee, RiverTear980, and ilovemanicures.**

**So yeah, really sorry for the wait on this chapter. But hey, at least it's up. And we have our newest additions to the cast: Sherry LeBlanc and Namu Ishtar.**

**For those of you who are a bit confused, Namu is my headcanon named for (and this may be a bit of a surprised for some of you) Yami Marik. And yes, Namu of The Others Series is based on the same canon character. Later today, I'm going to be posting something in Odd Happenings that will hopefully explain how they are the same people, so get ready for some character analysis essays. Going to get some sleep first, as it is just after one in the morning here and I have to get up early-ish for an appointment.****  
><strong>

**I figured a while back that while Kaiba is a brilliant inventor, he simply doesn't have the time to run the Resistance and come out with all their nifty gadgets. And so Namu became that person. He was always going to make it in to The Others, though his role has changed from Amane's psychology-studying don (back when I was considering sending her to college) to an expert in explosives, to what he is now. I like him better this way, but really remember him. Namu's _existence_ is pretty much a huge plot point.**

**Bakura and Atem's escape scene is based on a scene in the French movie _District 13_ staring David Belle, the founder of parkour. If you're interested in watching the specific scene that I used, search 'Best Parkour scene ever' on Youtube. Unless something changes in the next little while, it should be the first hit.**

**Also, I am almost half way through writing Dark God's family story. There are a lot of Triple Goddess references, as well as really warped feminist/neopagan theology in it. And sex. Lots and lots of sex. Not that I'm writing a PWP or anything, but there is a tonne of sex which I find odd to write. Especially when I'm not the only one in the room. Yeah...awkward...**

**Until next time,**

**AlcatrazOutpatient**


	6. An NFL Player at ComicCon

**The Others: The Second Year**

**Disclaimer:** Yu-gi-oh! Duel Monsters is owned by Kazuki Takahashi, Studio Gallop, Nihon Ad Systems, TV Tokyo and 4Kids Entertainment. All names were changed to the characters of this fandom in order to protect the real people involved in the following incidents.

**Warning:** Darkshipping (BakuraxFem!Atem) and sexual situations.

_To Maha, Markus, Val,  
>Matt, Scott, Naomi, and Natasha<br>For reaching out of the past  
>And saying,<br>"No.  
>We're not letting you go.<br>We're never letting you go.  
>You stupid, stupid moron,<br>Why would we let you go?"  
>Thank you for proving to me<br>That miracles do exist_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 6: An NFL Player at ComicCon<strong>

_Saturday, November 4th, 2017_

"Found anything on Martha?" Atem asked, sitting down across from me at the wooden table. She thumped a hugely large book that she'd pulled off the shelves.

I sighed, poking at the touch screen monitor of my tablet, willing the program to run faster. Thankfully, Namu had sent Glitch the robo-bug to grab out stuff from the hotel last night so we didn't have to risk going back there ourselves, "Do you know how many people in this country have the name Martha?"

"Not really."

"Too many. Way too many. Like, in the thousands," I groaned. "You know, when I first signed up for this, I didn't expect to be sitting in a library looking for random Marthas. What's in the book?"

"Its an encyclopedia. The 'M' section. M for Martha, right?" Atem smiled.

I shook my head, "Anyone in there won't be listed by their first name. It'll be by their last."

Atem blinked before slamming her head into the desk with a frustrated whine.

"Yes. I know. It's sucks," I agreed to her unspoken complaint.

"It does," she rose her head. "What if it's a code? What if Martha is a code?"

"That it's not a name? What does Martha mean anyways?" I googled it, "Looks like it means 'bitter' or 'lady'. A bitter lady? That's a lot to go on. No offense, but there are a lot of bitter women out there."

"Trust me, I've met more than my fair share of bitter women before. I take no offense," Atem grimaced. "What about the other parts of what Mr. Dennis said? The Thousand Spell Book lies with Martha. 'Lies'? Does that mean that that Martha is dead, if it is lying with her?"

"Maybe. That would narrow down the search a bit," I checked the search option of 'deceased' in the search. The program paused for a moment before starting the search all over again. I touched the chip that was plugged into the tablet, thinking of my sister, Amane. She'd probably be able to help or, at the very least, be able to say something at this moment. I'd call her, but I was worried about her being busy with her duties to the Resistance.

I bit my lip. Amane was doing something at least. She was fighting. And was here. This was ridiculous. I was supposed to be part of a god damn strike team, not some guy who spent his days cooped up in a freaking library looking for mysterious woman named Martha. I was so frustrated. I just wanted to go out and do something.

"Bakura," Atem's voice brought me back to reality for a moment. "You're doing it again."

I glanced down at my fingers on my left hand, which had subconsciously started tapping in sixes again. I gritted my teeth together, willing the presence of Dark God and his bleed over effects into the back of my mind.

"Sorry," I shook my hand out, then passing it through my hair.

"There is nothing to apologize for. You've done nothing wrong," she said warmly. My stomach did a small flip.

"I just wish we'd gotten more out of him before he died," I repeated the phrase I'd been saying all morning. "And you're sure his spirit fully passed on?"

"Very. I checked this morning. He didn't have any regrets. In fact, I think we helped him to let go of any regret he may have had over telling that other person - the one before Yusei."

"Great. So we're fresh out of leads. Oh, and the search just came back. There are one thousand one hundred and fifty one dead women named Martha. This is going to be like searching for a needle in a pile of needles," I rolled my eyes.

Atem frowned, "How many of them were dead before the Roswell incident?"

I blinked, "Uh..." Narrowing down the search, I continued, "About half that."

"How many were famous?"

I could see where she was going with this, "A fair few."

"Name them. I'll see if any ring a bell."

"There was a Swedish princess -"

Atem interrupted me, "The government wouldn't have let the Book out of the country, let alone into the hands of a European royal. They're entire line has been infected for centuries."

"Okay. How about Martha M. Place, the first woman to be executed via the electric chair?" I suggested.

She shook her head, "Doesn't seem right. They would have hide it somewhere obvious, yet close enough for them to monitor it's whereabouts."

"Well, what if we're looking at it wrong," I put down the tablet. "Dennis told Yusei that the Thousand Spell Book was with a woman named Martha, but what if that isn't all that they said?"

""What do you mean?"

"We only got part of the conversation, the most important part - the one that Dennis thought we'd need, but what if they had talked before about something else while they were there," I took a breath before throwing out a wild idea. "Dennis only told Yusei the woman's first name. What it he did this because Yusei already knew the woman and didn't need to hear the last name?"

Atem looked almost taken aback, "Bakura, that's..."

"Insane? Totally heading in the wrong direction?"

"Brilliant actually. Can that machine of yours check into Yusei's life to search for a Martha?" Her eyes lit up, pointing at my tablet.

"It should be. I'll check into his teammates lives, too. Hey," another thought hit me, "ask the lady at reception if they've got any books on the UFO museum as well. Just in case Dennis was talking about a Martha he knew."

She nodded, standing up and heading over to the front desk. I tapped away on my tablet, hiding my head in the hood of my jacket. Atem and I had made the news with our appearance at the elders home. I didn't have much in the way of a disguise, but Atem at least had managed to retain her wig. I could blow our entire cover if the wrong person got a good look at me.

A part of me actually liked that idea. Something very Dark God about me - they're nothing, I can take them all down with a single flick my hand, they're all just meat - almost wanted someone to recognize me.

I ducked my head down even lower just to avoid this.

I needed to get this under control. Merging with Touzoku hadn't effected me as badly as it did with Dark God. There was just something about him that made him different; he was far more intense than the healer from Japan ever would be. Far more dark, far more powerful. Far more captivating.

Atem came back just as the program completed it's search of the lives of Yusei and his team, "You are not going to believe what I found."

"Neither will you," I grinned as I looked at my findings. Atem flipped open her book as I tilted the screen up so that she could see the name I'd found (though it might take her a little while to read it). "Martha Hogan."

Just as I said that, she pointed to the page she'd turned to and said the same name as me, "Martha Hog- wait, what? How'd you know?"

"How'd you know?"

"She's here, in the book. The lady at the desk said that this book was about a bunch of businesses in the area. Martha Hogan used to work at the museum. What'd you find out on her?" Atem tilted her head to the side.

"Other than that she's Crow's mother?"

"No…" Atem was shocked. "Really?"

"Want to know what the best part is?" My grin only seemed to widen, "She died a few years ago. And she's buried nearby."

"Where?"

"Santa Fe. At least it's in the same state."

"It's a lead. Its more than I've had in a while," Atem seemed overjoyed at that idea.

"We'll need to say our goodbyes to Namu then. Too bad, he's starting to grow on me," I shrugged, gathering up my stuff. She wanted to keep the library book, just in case we needed to refer back to it for some reason.

"We can't do that. They'll be able to tell that the book is missing. Hell, they'll be able to track it, too," I told her.

"How?" She frowned.

"I used to work in a library, so I know how this goes. We walk out these doors with this book and the alarms go off. Not to mention that, due to a bunch of legal loopholes, the arphids in these things can be tracked by the government if they think one is in the hands of a criminal," I pointed to her, remembering how she'd asked the librarian about this book - abet in disguise. Atem swore. But then I remembered something. "There is a way that we could keep it though."

"How so?"

"I'll need a microwave. Come on, let's go find the staff room," then I tugged her along towards a door in the back of the library marked with the sign 'Staff Only'. I was about to do something I'd swore I'd never do: copy the distribution method of a drug cartel.

* * *

><p><span>If there was one good thing that ever came out of my father being a cop, it was that he liked to talk about some of the cases he'd worked on. You see, dad was a member of the organized crime unit and spent his days putting some of the gangs that ran in the streets of Domino City out of business. That's probably where he first got hooked on the Orichalcos. Turns out the police were one of the top buyers for the Green Diamonds syndicate, the best place to look if you wanted to get your fix of magic enhancers.<span>

Anyways, to keep up appearances, every so often the Domino City Police Department would bust a few gang bangers or take out one of the Green Diamonds' smuggling rings. Dad was put on one such case about a year after we moved to America. Turns out they were operating out of one of the library's downtown. They hid their goods in the books themselves, taped to the covers of a few of the D-List crime novels. If you wanted something, they gave you the title and you walked out with the book in hand.

Due to my former job at the library near my school, I knew my way around the technology that was used in these books. Each novel contained something called an arphid, a little computer chip that serves mainly as an ID so that the library's systems could tell if it was checked out or not. They are also the reason why, when you attempt to walk out of the doors without checking them out first, you get a rude awakening in the form of alarm bells.

To avoid this, the Green Diamonds destroyed the chips. Arphids don't have 'kill signals', so no radio transmission was going to help them. So they sent in a few of their low-level guys (a bunch of kids that were down on their luck or just thought it was cool to be part of a gang) to find a way to short circuit them. One of those kids decided to stick a book in the microwave for thirty seconds on high. That pretty much did the trick.

And so, for about three years, that library unknowingly became the hot spot for the distribution of cocaine, heroin, and some pretty sick pornography that involved non-consenting minors. Until dad shut it down, of course. Good for him.

I wish that would have been the last dad ever had to deal with the Green Diamonds. Maybe he would have been clean had he not gotten that case. Or maybe not. There were a hundred other ways he could have gotten hooked on the Orichalcos just by working at the DCPD. I just wish it could have turned out differently for him.

* * *

><p>Mental note to self: when killing arphids in microwaves, use oven mits to take it out. Who knew that paper could get that hot?<p>

I was still nursing my burnt finger as we made our way back to Namu's place. Atem chuckled a bit at my misfortune, telling me to suck it up and that I'd had worse. I called her a meanie and asked her, playfully, if she'd kiss it better.

She just had to call me on my bluff, didn't she? Atem was an evil, evil woman, I swear.

Namu was sitting at the kitchen table when we came in, typing away at on his own tablet. He looked like he hadn't moved since we left him early that morning.

"So what exactly are you working on?" I asked as we got closer.

He looked up surprised; he must have been so engrossed in his work that he didn't hear us come in, "Mass teleportation device."

And he said it like it was the most normal thing in the world. Wow. He was a crazy, mad scientist, this one.

I nodded, wishing him luck. Namu smirked, "gh05twr1tt3r came online when you were out. She knows you're safe and says hi. I still can't believe she's a girl."

"Why's that?"

"I'm not trying to be sexist or anything, but finding a female hacker is like finding an NFL player at ComicCon. There are so few women in computer culture in general, let alone hacker culture, so I guess I just assumed she was male," he explained.

"An NFL player at ComicCon?" I smirked.

"Not impossible, just highly improbable. And I do mean highly," Namu rolled his eyes before shooting me a look. "You got a problem with my metaphor?"

"No, I don't have a problem with your metaphor. I like your metaphor. I respect it," I grinned cheekily.

"What's ComicCon?" Atem asked. Namu and I shared a glance before sighing.

And so began the long and difficult process of explaining what a sci-fi convention was to a socially and technologically inept immortal. It took longer than the both of us assumed it would combined.

* * *

><p>"So you two are going to head out tomorrow?"<p>

"Yes. We're going to go to Santa Fe to see if we can track down Martha Hogan," Atem explained, reaching across the table to grab at the container of Italian take out that Namu had sent Glitch to procure. How the eight-eyed metal insect managed to pull it off, I had no idea.

"Hogan? Like Crow Hogan? Family of his?" Namu asked.

"Mother," I supplied between forkfuls of spaghetti.

"That would have to be his adoptive mother. Crow was an orphan," he said.

I looked at him, "How'd you know that? That didn't turn up when I searched for his profile on that FBI database copy."

"It wouldn't. Yusei asked the Resistance to seal his records, along with everyone else on his team. He was a bit paranoid like that."

"So who do you know?" Atem questioned him.

"Crow mentioned it once and I overheard," Namu's face turned serious for a second. "That was right before they left actually - Yusei and the others."

"That has to be it then: the Thousand Spell Book lies with Martha. Martha Hogan," I supplied.

"But that doesn't make any sense," Atem frowned, pulling out the library book and scanning the page where Martha's name had cropped up. "She worked there for three months as a volunteer. Why would they trust her with the book? Besides, she was twelve during the Roswell incident. Who in their right mind would put a twelve year old in charge of something so valuable?"

"Maybe for that reason," Namu pointed out. "No one would expect it."

"It still seems rather dumb to me," she shook her head, just as Glitch scuttled into the room.

"Sir," the robot began, "I have downloaded the files you requested."

"Great," Namu nodded, giving Glitch an arm to crawl up so that he didn't have to make the jump onto the table. Atem flinched beside me, still not used to the robot's existence. I just figured that it wasn't the weirdest thing I'd seen in my list and just took it in stride.

"Files?" I asked.

"On our friend, SSA LeBlanc," he answered. "I've seen her before and in my experience, if you see the same person twice in the streets it's not usually a coincidence."

"Well, if she was stationed here, you're probably going to see her around, Namu," I pointed out.

"I didn't see her in town. I saw at my parents' house a little over a year ago," his face was blank, far too blank. "They live in Virginia."

Okay, that was a bit too much of a coincidence. But I had to wonder, "What would the FBI want with your parents?"

"LeBlanc was probably asking them about me. But she wouldn't have gotten any information out of them. Mother and Father haven't seen me since I went underground," he commented. "I keep tabs on them, though, to make sure they're safe."

"So what would the FBI want with you?" Atem asked.

"Nothing. I haven't done anything to make them angry. And that's what's worrying me," he looked through the files that Glitch had downloaded onto his laptop. Namu's jaw clenched.

"What is it?" I leaned forwards, almost dragging my sleeve through my dinner.

"How many moments from when you were first spotted to when LeBlanc arrive?" He didn't look up, just kept frowning at the screen.

"Less than five," I told him.

"Why?" Atem inquired.

"How did she know you'd be there? There are no official reasons for the FBI to be in Roswell, so why is she here?" He muttered to himself. His eyes widened, "I need to check something!"

Namu got up quickly, tucking his tablet under his arm, and bolted down the stairs. I almost went after him, but Glitch caught me with one of its tentacle-cable things that seemed to randomly sprout from it's back.

"Mr. Bakura, please sit down. Master Namu will be in his laboratory and it will be impossible for you to get in anyways," it told me.

I grumbled as I sat myself back down. Atem gave me a sympathetic glance. I continued to stab at my spaghetti, mumbling darkly under my breath.

Glitch jumped off the table shortly afterwards, leaving the two of us alone.

"You're bored, aren't you?" Atem asked suddenly.

I looked up, startled, "What makes you say that?"

She smiled nostalgically, "Touzoku had this face that he'd wear between when there were no interesting or challenging cases that came through his medical ward. You've got that on your face at the moment."

"At least it wasn't something Dark God used to do," I said, mainly to myself.

"Dark God didn't get bored," her voice was soft.

"Lucky him," I sighed. "I just...we're supposed to be fighting. I thought that we'd be out there, doing stuff, finding the Book. It just seems like we're going absolutely nowhere."

"If it makes you feel better, these leads on the Thousand Spell Book are the most promising news I've had since Napoleon took over Spain."

"How is it that you got to hang out with Napoleon Bonaparte but not Martin Luther King Junior?" I laughed.

"Luck, I suppose," she tried to stifle a giggle with the back of her hand.

"Was he really as short as they say he was?"

"I'll have you know he was taller than me," Atem looked a bit indignant, though mostly amused.

"It's possible to be shorter than the guy they named the Napoleon Complex after?"

"Oh, shut up, Bakura."

She threw a balled up napkin at me. I caught it and tossed it back at her. It got stuck in her hair and she tried to take it out. I got up to help her, picking it from her locks and dangling it just out of her reach.

"Give it here," she pouted.

"Nope. If I do, you'll just throw it at me again," I grinned.

"And I'd be justified about it!"

Then she tackled me, shoving me to the floor. My side hurt from laughing so hard, but I barely noticed it as we wrestled on the floor. Rolling around until I trapped her beneath me, I bent down low, "Give up yet, Immortal?"

"Not on your life," Atem's voice was breathless and ragged. "I know your one weakness."

"And what would that be?" I sounded frighteningly similar to her.

"This," and with that, her arm hooked behind my neck and pulled me down. My lips met her's in a kiss that I could only describe as hot.

I pulled away when I needed to desperately breathe. I gasped and then tossed the napkin all the way to the other side of the room, just to be a brat. Atem didn't seem to care, though. I'd gone back to kissing her, so she was far to busy with me to mind.

This time, it was my hands that moved. She gripped at my shirt as my fingers skirted under hers, feeling her feverish skin beneath my touch. Another went to the back of her thigh, looping it over my hip as I pressed forward. Atem jerked, gasping and then pulled back, exposing her neck to my mouth.

"You're getting good at this," she whispered into my ear as I sucked on her collarbone, hands moving up to the bottom edges of her bra.

"Have a good teacher," I murmured. "Can I?"

"Gods, yes," and with her permission, I palmed her breasts through that (rather annoying) layer of cotton. Atem sighed and damn, was that not a really sexy sound. Then she shoved me backwards, so that I was sitting up and she was between my legs. My mind stalled for a moment, getting a shit tone of mixed signals because she'd just pushed me away, but now Atem was taking off her shirt.

She tossed it at me and it felt like I inhaled a whole lot of gasoline. Then she sped upstairs to the room that Namu had set me up with. I looked down at the shirt, wondering if I was reading the signs wrong - she could be taunting me, teasing me. Or maybe she...wanted me?

No, there was no way that this could be misinterpreted.

I raced up the winding staircase after her, throwing open the door and stalking over to the bed where Atem had laid herself down. I crawled back on top of her, hands reattaching themselves to her flesh as she pulled me back down for a kiss.

"Want you, so bad," I whispered into her lips.

"You've got me," Atem said back.

I never thought words could be such a powerful turn on, but I was definitely not complaining that they were. I moaned, hips jerking into hers, as Atem's hands slipped in between us and started fiddling with the front of my jeans.

Okay, that was happening. Part of me knew exactly what her grand plan was, but a larger section of my consciousness was devoted to finding a way to remove her bra from her chest so that I could touch her for real. I fumbled, feeling for the clasp at the back, only to find that there wasn't one. Atem ground against me once more and in the period of time where my eyes were not rolling into the backs of their sockets, I saw that it unlatched from the front.

Whoever invented that was a fucking genius.

With the offending piece of clothing gone and long out of sight, I turned my attention back to her breasts. One hands gripped at my hair, yanking it almost at the roots as I sucked on one of her nipples. She made the most amazing sounds, panting and gasping and sometimes, if I listened closely, I could hear her whispering my name over and over again.

But I'd forgotten her other hand, until it was too late. I felt it slide past my waistband and under my boxers and -

"Holy shit," I gasped, my face burying itself between her breasts as I tried to contain myself. Her hand was...she was...okay, keep calm. Breathe, damn it, remember how to breathe. It wasn't like I'd never done this to myself before.

But this was nothing like those (frankly, rare few) times in which I'd wanked off in my early teens. Maybe its was because it was Atem's hand, not mine, that was touching me. I grunted through my teeth as she gripped the base of my cock, but then slide it up and down in a haphazard motion that I was convinced was completely on purpose and intended to drive me insane.

"Feel good?" She asked. I glanced up from where I was lying, trying to keep my face straight and my breathing even. Atem had the largest, most evil grin on her face and I should not have found that so utterly arousing.

I nodded, not trusting my mouth at the moment with the ability to string words together. I hauled myself upwards and kissed her again, letting my hips rock into her hand at their own accord. Atem somehow managed to wrap her legs around my waist and flip me over onto my back.

Her hand disappeared and I whined in frustration, "Why'd you stop?"

"Not stopping," she muttered, sitting between my legs. I propped myself up on my elbows to see what she was doing. And then my jeans were around my ankles. And then my boxers joined them. And then-

Sweet mother of _fuck_.

I threw my head back, eyes wide and fingers desperately clutching the bed sheets for something to hang onto. This was too much, too god damn much. I forced myself to look back at Atem, to make sure I wasn't imagining that - but how could I ever have known what this felt like? Her mouth was a pit of lava and I was going die.

I didn't know if it finished quickly or not, because my time-keeping ability went out the window the moment her tongue flicked over the head of my dick. I didn't know what set me off either, though it could have been a multitude of things. It could have been the look in her eyes when she glanced up at me, almost checking to see if I was still all right with this. It could have been how she seemed to know how to play my body like a harp, which veins and ridges to toy with so that she could find my voice. Or it could have been the fact that Atem, of all people, was sucking me off and that was really hot.

Either way, all paths led to the same destination: me arching forwards, grabbing onto her hair, and letting out a gravelly groan as I came like an out of control freight train.

The first thing I confidently heard after I made my way back to earth, bewildered and sated and not wanting to move for the next five days, was the sound of Atem coughing.

"Shit, sorry," I mumbled groggily. "Would have warned you, if I knew..."

"It's okay. You can do that next time," Atem said offhandedly. It took me a whole ten seconds to process that information (wow, did having an orgasm make me dumb or what).

"...Next time?"

She blinked, then started to stutter, utterly embarrassed, "I-I mean, well -"

I didn't really think about it. I just leaned forwards and kissed her, not really caring about where her mouth had been. I pulled back, grinned wickedly, "Your turn."

"Wait," she grabbed my hands before they could remove the rest of her clothes. "No."

I stilled, "Why not?"

"Because, if my pants come off, then we're probably going to end up having sex."

I failed to see the problem with that.

"I'm not...I just don't think..." she tried to come up with an answer.

"I just thought it would be fair. You know, like a 'thank you' or something," I leaned into her shoulder, forehead resting in the crook of her neck. "Maybe next time?"

"Right. Next time," Atem wrapped her arms around my shoulders, tracing random symbols along my spine.

We stayed like that for a few moments, just enjoying each other's presence and the feel of skin-on-skin. But I had to ask: "Atem, why are we doing this?"

I felt her shift in my arms, "Do you not want to?"

"No, no. I do. A lot. Just why? What's our end game?"

Atem said nothing for a while, just continued imprinting circles and swirls into my back with her fingers.

"Do we have to have one?" She nuzzled closer.

"Well, yeah," I snorted. "If I haven't got a reasonable excuse, then the Kaibas are going to kill me and make it look like an accident."

Atem laughed into my shoulder, then moved back to look at me, "I've never spoken of my private life to them before and I'm not about to start now. Besides, I don't think Seto would appreciate it if I did."

"What about Mokuba?"

"Mokuba would want to know and that's why I'm not telling him. Him knowing what I want to do with consenting adults is far more frightening than anything I would actually do," she said.

I hummed in acknowledgement, before dragging her back down into bed with me. Atem squawked indignantly, "Bakura, I said -"

"I know. Just worn out. Want to sleep. You're better then those damn sleeping pills."

"Bakura."

"Ah-hmm?"

"Pull up your pants first."

"...Fine."

* * *

><p><em>Sunday, November 5th, 2017<em>

I woke up the sound of someone kicking the front door in. Atem's eyes snapped open and she quickly rolled out of bed, grabbing her shirt that I'd discarded near the door. We slung our bags over our backs as my knife slipped into my hand as her bow appeared by her side.

It was still dark out, the clock saying that it was barely three in the morning. I could feel several flames traversing the bottom floor. Three broke off of the main pack and started to make their way up the stairs.

They were coming. A wave of adrenaline ran through my veins. Finally, a fight. I'd been waiting for this.

"What the hell are you doing in my house?" I heard Namu's voice come from downstairs. The flames on the stairs paused, then made their way back down. I snarled. Atem gave me a look that told me to shut up.

"Namu Ishtar?" I recognized that voice. Our favourite agent, Sherry LeBlanc, had returned.

"That's me. You can't be in here without a warrant. I'd like you to leave."

"Don't kill them. Just knock them out. Now come on," Atem whispered as the flames of what were probably the SWAT team surrounded the grey one I presumed was Namu himself. We crept out of room just in time to here LeBlanc speak again.

"You're under arrest for aiding and abetting the fugitive Yugi Mutuo and her male partner, as well as interfering in a criminal investigation. You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to a lawyer..."

"Pst!" The noise made the two of us turn. My eyes widened. Namu stood just behind us, a rather large gun held in both of his hands.

"How?" I started off.

"Glitch. I told you, he's a transformative multi tool. Taking my form is almost ridiculously easy at this point," he said. "Can you cloak us all? We need to get to Glitch before they get him to the police station and realize he doesn't have finger prints."

Atem nodded and put up the Illusion. We made our way down the stairs just in time to see Glitch-Namu being led out the door, yelling, "You can't do this! I didn't do anything! I want a lawyer, damn it!"

By the look of resignation on the real Namu's face, Glitch was having the time of it's life impersonating it's creator. And it was a pretty good impersonation, too. The only difference I could see (or rather, hear) was that Glitch-Namu's footsteps were a lot heavier and clunked as he was forced forward by the over-zealous police officer.

"Don't worry about being seen. Kaiba's wanted me to transfer to Area 51 for a while now anyways. I'm going to go to the control panel. Don't leave me behind," Namu hissed, before breaking off from our ground and heading towards the mirror-like thing I'd seen earlier. Atem and I nodded to each other, before she dropped the Illusion and we struck.

Just as the final cop stepped over the doorway and back into the house to presumably search for the pair of us, I jumped up and grabbed the frame. Kicking out with both my feet, I sent him flying onto the front lawn. Atem slipped out under me, just as Agent LeBlanc turned and reached for her gun. Glitch-Namu grinned as his face began to deconstruct and he became nothing more than a mass of writhing tentacles. They wrapped around her as Atem shoved her fist into the stomach of another armor clad SWAT member.

I motioned towards the barrel of the gun belonging to the third officer. It swung up unexpectedly and his mask, cracking it and obscuring his vision. I could hear him swear as he motioned to remove it, but he never got to as I sped towards him and tapped his neck with two of my fingers. He collapsed as I momentarily stopped blood flow to his brain.

I had a very small moment to revel in my victory - as well as the fact that that had been Touzoku's knowledge and not Dark God's - before I hear a sharp pop. I let out a cry of pain and grasped at my shoulder as a bullet tore through it. My fingers became slick with my own blood.

"Don't heal it!" Atem shouted from the other side of the lawn as she smacked the final cop with the side of her bow. Dealing the final blow with a reverse hook to the side of the face, the officer dropped like a rock.

"I've been fucking shot!" I yelled back, pointing out the obvious.

She didn't answer, only shoved me to the side as the sniper let out another volley of death and steal. The mass of metal that was Glitch carried a shrieking Agent LeBlanc with it as it slithered towards where Atem was dragging me - the garage.

"Don't go inside!" It warned us, "The house is under attack. If anyone just Master Namu goes in there, the floor with burn them alive."

"What?!" I gasped, before groaning from the pain. Atem leaned me up against the brick wall of the house, in between Namu's and whoever his neighbour's were. The sniper fired again, bullets hitting the edge of the house and sending plumes of dust into the air.

"What the hell is this thing?" LeBlanc screamed. Glitch whipped a cable around her mouth and gagged her.

"Convert," Atem breathed, her face pale. She ripped off a piece of LeBlanc's pant leg and pressed the wad into my wound. "The sniper's a Convert."

"Fuck," I spoke through gritted teeth. I looked at my wrist, were a charm that would identify if any Gigas were in the area hung. It wasn't glowing. We were safe from those for now. "Damn it, heal me. I can't fight properly with a bullet hole in my shoulder."

"If I do it now and I have to stop, it stays that way. I can't risk it and neither of us can risk the waste of energy," she ducked as the Convert sniper started shooting again..

"If you don't mind me asking, Ms. Atem, how can you sense them?" Glitch asked, ever so politely. "The Orichalcos cannot be felt via the Sixth Sense, so how are you able to do it?"

"I just can," she snapped angrily. "Where is Namu?"

"Right here," Marik's sort-of twin joined us. "I spotted her. She's in the bedroom of the people who live across the street. Nice couple. Annoying kids, though. Tossed a rock through my window once. They're out of town."

"Not important!" Atem growled, before her eyes glanced at the huge gun he was holding. "What's that?"

"I brought my incinerator. I thought it would help."

I would have laughed, but it hurt too much.

Atem turned to Glitch, "Let her talk."

It removed the cable and LeBlanc immediately started to curse her to the moon and back. Atem grabbed her by the collar, "Listen here, agent. You and your friend up there have just made the biggest mistake of your entire lives: you've made me very angry. Now if you want to get out of here with your lungs still in your body - and trust me, I can remove them if I want to, I've done it before and I'm itching to demonstrate - you will tell me exactly who is up there and how you got in contact with a Convert."

LeBlanc gulped, "I-I don't know."

"Don't lie to me," Atem shook her violently.

"I don't know, I swear! I thought that the sniper was one of yours, until he got hit," the agent looked ready to cry. It was such a difference between the near emotionless woman from a few days ago.

"Atem, she didn't know. We've got bigger problems." I hissed.

She looked back at me, then to Namu, "Can you shoot that thing?"

He grinned, "Oh yeah."

He did. To put it simply, the entire house just _died_. Something told me that he really didn't like those kids in that house.

"Need a hand?" He extended his towards me. I grimaced.

"Thanks," I used my good arm to grasp him and haul myself up. He took charge of the bandage on my shoulder as Atem stomped across the road towards the wreckage. A car nearly plowed into her while she was crossing it. She stopped it by caving in the front end with her foot. Holy crap, was she ever pissed.

Then she started picking through the rubble for what I assumed was the leftovers of the Convert sniper.

Oh yeah, she was pissed. Though whether it was because they'd managed to find us or because I'd been shot was unknown at the moment. I kind of wished it was the latter because I might have actually found that a bit sweet - in a totally manly way, of course. I blamed the blood loss.

And then, just as I made my way onto the grass of the lawn, Namu's house began to smoke. I pointed this out to him.

"Don't worry. I just set it to self-destruct."

Oh. Okay. That was fine.

How I managed to take this in stride was beyond me.

I really blamed the blood loss.

Some of the neighbours had come out to investigate the sounds. There were several couples accompanied by teenagers with cell phones. Namu pulled out his own phone and pressed a few icons on the screen. The kid nearest to us, sporting a Brown University t-shirt and boxers, yelped as his phone sparked and died.

"EMP?" I asked.

"Yep. Pocket sized. The government hasn't even managed to develop one yet and they have more funding than I do."

"I shiver at the thought of what you could do with better funding," I joked, wincing as I jostled my shoulder.

"I don't. I could use it. Nanotechnology isn't the cheapest thing on the planet."

Glitch stayed off to the side, keeping LeBlanc restrained. Atem finally found the Convert, ripping the Orichalcos stone from the chain around her neck. The air around her hands became ice and the stone shattered into a billion little pieces.

The woman was small with short black hair that stuck outwards at the tips. She was unconscious, up until the moment when Atem destroyed the stone. Then her eyes snapped open and she started to scream.

"No! No! Don't - don't take it away from me! I need it, I need the stone, please! Give it back! I need it!"

Atem's jaw clenched. There was a look on her face that I couldn't place. It was odd, for lack of a better word. She gazed at the Convert with something that wasn't quite pity, wasn't quite hatred, wasn't quite contempt. I didn't understand what was happening or traveling through her mind, but whatever it was, it was incredibly strong.

"Who sent you?" She snarled, "How did you find us?"

But the woman simply screamed, like something was burning her from the inside out. Namu stood next to me, jaw open and unable to say anything. I was suddenly hit by the thought that I'd seen something like this before.

Atem, realizing that she would get no more from the Convert, knocked her out. She turned to me, "We're going with Namu to Area 51. And we're bring both LeBlanc and her," she nodded to the woman, "with us. We need to regroup. Something is going on."

"No kidding," Namu muttered as he continued to press buttons on his phone. His car materialized in a flash of green nanite-smoke.

"Let's get out of here. We can call while we're on the road. Glitch!" He called and the mechanical monster crawled over to where he was, Agent LeBlanc in tow. She was currently unconscious. Atem stuffed her and the Convert in the trunk together as Namu climbed in the front seat.

"Can I get rid of the bullet wound now?" I rolled my eyes from the back, already applying my magic to it to dull the pain. Atem sighed, looking slightly more human than she had in the moments previous, and placed her hand on my shoulder. Glitch curled up on the floor of the passenger seat and, for all intents and purposes, fell asleep.

We drove in silence for half an hour, the only real sounds being my occasional sharp intake of breath due to the healing. Thankfully for me, the bullet went right through me so there was nothing to remove.

As Atem finally pulled her hand away from me, the sun started to peak over the horizon. It outlined her face sharply, her eyes glowing. I tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"Thanks," I said softly.

"Are you two dating?" Namu asked, eyes reflecting in the rear view mirror.

There was barely a look that passed between Atem and I before we spoke as one.

"No."

* * *

><p><strong>Hey guys!<strong>

**I'd like to thank those who reviewed for the last chapter: zukofan2005, ilovemanicures, Aqua girl 007, Akikee, Akefia Bakura, and Rainy-Ray-Rachel. Thank you for blessing my life with your continued awesomeness!**

**So we found out a little about the mysterious Martha. Namu's house has been blown up. Bakura and Atem got down and dirty with one another. Oh, and now they've beat up a SWAT team, kidnapped an FBI agent and are fleeing the city in a nanite car. Yep, it's official. I am jealous of my own characters.**

**So what's been up with me since you all last heard from me? I'm back in university and hopefully its going to be a better year then last. I'm going to spend the next month applying to culinary schools across Ontario, but in the mean time, I'm going to spend this time practicing. I made some soup today and it was delicious.**

**I got myself a Tumblr account. Even though I'm going under the same name as I am here, it's got very little to do with fanfiction. I reblog a bunch of stuff (mainly recipes and nature shots as of late) and ramble about the things that pop into my head - like how the trains passing by my house vibrate the wall behind my bed. If you want to check that out, go ahead. Do what you wish, as long as what you wish makes you happy at the end of the day.**

**Female!Bakura is still on the brain. If you haven't read that chapter of Odd Happenings yet, I do recommend it. It's a really fascinating insight into the other world that I could have written about, if it wasn't riddled with so many plot holes. Female!Bakura will definitely be popping up again in Odd Happenings. For some reason, whenever I hear the song _We Are Young_ by 3OH!3, I think of her. That being said, _Welcome to the Black Parade_ by My Chemical Romance is definitely Ryou Bakura's song. And Sting's _Book of My Life_ is the song for the entire entity known as Bakura, from King Killer to our favourite Necromancer.**

**Until next time,**

**AlcatrazOutpatient **


	7. Too Much Information

**The Others: The Second Year**

**Disclaimer:** Yu-gi-oh! Duel Monsters is owned by Kazuki Takahashi, Studio Gallop, Nihon Ad Systems, TV Tokyo and 4Kids Entertainment. All names were changed to the characters of this fandom in order to protect the real people involved in the following incidents.

**Warning:** This chapter contains some references to religious beliefs. Please note that the author, AlcatrazOutpatient, does not want to enforce these beliefs on anyone and encourages you to continue to believe or not believe in what ever you so wish. Also note that the contents of this page do not reflect the opinions of the author.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 7: Too Much Information<strong>

_I thought that I was being followed. Sometimes when I'd look over my shoulder, I'd see a shadow disappearing into a corridor who it was, I didn't know, but I was going to find out. I ducked into an empty room and waited. Thankfully, my shadow didn't keep me on the hook for long._

_The door edged open and a large, lumbering shape came in. Ironheart, former king of Mu and father of Dartz the scumbag, walked with the gait of the old man that he was - slow and pained - yet surprisingly precise in his steps. His silver beard was long and flowing, his face wrinkled with time, and his eyes dark pits of obsidian._

_"You're following me. Why?" I crossed my arms over my chest and let a flick of my power through my usually ironclad control. The older man raised an eyebrow, though not in shock._

_"You remind me of someone that I knew once," he stated simply._

_"That's it? That's all?" I frowned._

_"Yes and no. I want to know why you look like He did, though I doubt you know the answer," Ironheart shuffled forwards, hands at his sides. I growled._

_"What does Dartz want with Atem? He's here for a reason and he wants her for one, too. Don't deny it," I snapped when I say him open his mouth to do such a thing. "Don't lie to me! I want to know what is going on."_

_He hummed in acknowledgement, gazing at the floor for a moment before answering, "Yes, he does need her to accomplish something, but your fears are unfounded. Dartz will not harm her in any fashion. He can't, even if he wanted to. Innocence must be preserved for this to work."_

_"For what to work?"_

_"A spell. One that my father set in motion a long time ago. Dartz wishes to restore our people to what they were, but...bah!," Ironheart scoffed. "I do not care what the boy does, he is king so his word is law. Let him do what he wishes. I will not stop him and neither should you."_

_"But what does he want with her?" I growled._

_"Don't worry. She will not be harmed. Innocence must be preserved," Ironheart sighed, as if he was speaking to a child._

_"Stop avoiding the damned question!"_

_"You even sound like He did, yelling and cursing and assuming you deserve all," he shook his head. But then his gaze turned soft, "He was married, do you know? And she was beautiful. Wonderful. Ever so amazing. Why she married one as flawed as Him, I will never understand. But she was so young and different, and I was just a boy..."_

_I hissed, pulling my knife from the darkness and shoved him against the wall. "Tell me!" I roared, the blade to his throat, "Tell me now or you will-"_

_I felt it first before I realized what was happening. His arm snaked around mine, removing my knife from my grasp. Then, with strength he never should have possessed at his age, he grabbed me by the neck and threw my across the room. I slid to the floor with a thud as my weapon clattered to the floor._

_"Well, then. That is one aspect in which you are unlike Him. I'd never been able to fight Him, let alone win in such a fashion," Ironheart lost the look of withered old man and suddenly I realized that I was facing a timeless warrior who'd been in battle long before my ancestors were even born. "Here is a tip, mirror-image-who-is-not, never trust an enemy. They will not grant you mercy, even at a time when mercy is something that should be given effortlessly. Your creator taught me that the day my kingdom fell."_

_I spat in his direction and leapt to my feet. Arm raised and ready, I was prepared for anything he would throw at me. But instead, he merely gazed on, contemplatively._

_"Or maybe you are like Him, unable to give up. Remember my advice, mirror-image-who-is-not. And remember that she will not be harmed. But I stand by what I told you the day I met you: I am sorry. I am so, so sorry that it will turn out the way it will."_

_And then he turned on his heel, stepped through the doorway and back into the corridor. Just before he disappeared out of sight, Ironheart made sure to switch back to his usual way of walking - that of a helpless old man with no power to his name. It made my stomach turn in anger._

_I picked myself up off the floor, brushing the dirt off my skin. By the time I left the room, Ironheart was nowhere within sight. I huffed, annoyed, but made my way back to where I knew Atem was - the feel of her maroon flame flicking in my senses._

_She was in the practice fields, firing arrows into a target almost half a league away. Her quiver was hung around her waist and she drew her bow back with practiced ease, the bolts hitting the center with a thud each time._

_"You're getting good," I commented. Atem didn't even falter, releasing the never arrow just as cleanly as the ones before._

_"I was always good," she smirked, eyes darting back to me for a moment before they focused on their target once more._

_"Mmmn," I hummed in my throat. Her smirk only seemed to widen as I came closer, testing my boundaries in this practically public place. My fingers brushed against the base of her spine and she shivered slightly._

_"Don't," Atem murmured. "Bakura, wait - we've talked about this."_

_"Something's going on with the Ancients," I told her, hand never truly leaving her skin. "Ironheart says Dartz needs you for some spell."_

_"We both know that unless Dartz suddenly creates a miracle, my father isn't going to give him the bones we feed to the dogs, let alone my hand in marriage at this point. Nothing is going to happen. Dartz won't get what he wants," she pointed out, though she looked thoroughly distracted by my wandering hands._

_Smacking them away, Atem gave me a fierce look that told me she really didn't mind much, "You on the other hand..." her palm rested on my shoulder and I raised an eyebrow at her boldness, "...my father would rather eat the bones we feed to the dogs before..." and that hand slipped lower down my chest as she stepped forwards seductively, "...he would let you anywhere near me."_

_"I'm not one known for giving a damn about what your father thinks," I breathed and her hand went lower still. They came to a halt just below my navel._

_"No you are not, but do you know what else you are?" Atem whispered, leaning into me and letting her lips ghost over my ear._

_"Tell me," I hissed._

_"You are..." and then she pulled back, stepping away and letting her warmth disappear from my skin, "easy to wind up."_

_I groaned in frustration. Nothing seemed to be going my way today._

_But then again, I thought as Atem practically sashayed back into her position before the archery target, maybe somethings were worth the hardships in order to get them._

* * *

><p><em>Sunday, November 5th, 2017<em>

I jerked into consciousness in the back seat of Namu's car. The sun was about halfway between its noon position and the horizon; it's light hitting the window at just the right angle that it hit me directly in the face.

"How long have I been out?" I asked groggily.

"About three hours," Namu's voice responded from the driver's seat. He sounded worn and tired and I'd realized that he'd been driving for a ridiculously long time. The air conditioning was cranked up on high and I could see sweat dripping down the back of his neck.

"You wanna switch?" I suggested.

The relief in his voice was obvious, "That'd be great, thanks."

He pulled over to the side of the road and unbuckled his seat belt. Before I stepped out of the car, I glanced over at Atem, who was sound asleep against the doorway. I slipped out, jogged around the car and then behind the wheel. As I adjusted mirrors, Namu dislodged Glitch from nest of metal limbs on the passenger seat and promptly sat down with him on his lap.

"Why don't you get him to drive?" I nodded my head towards the robot-roach.

"His battery needs to charge," he said simply. When I grunted, asking for clarification, he continued on, "Solar power source. I know, not the most technologically advanced thing ever, but they work really, really well."

I shrugged, glancing over to the side at him as I put the car in drive and merged back into the lane, "Hey, this is going to be a bit of a weird, but you look a lot like one of my friends."

"Really?"

"Yeah. You've even got the last name."

He frowned, "Ishtar?"

"Yeah. He's name is Marik. He's my best friend and you two could pass as twins."

Namu jerked in his seat at the name, "Marik? He's...that's the same name my cousin has."

I blinked, "Coincidence?"

"I doubt it. Ishtar isn't the most common of surnames. So, my cousin's a carbon copy, huh?" Namu leaned back, looking at the ceiling. My hands gripped the wheel.

"You don't know?"

He snorted, "My parents are Others. Neither side of the family really wanted to get involved with them - the Ward and all. I guess his father just didn't want my father around his kids."

"His father wasn't the greatest of men," I felt a wave of anger at what that man had done to his son.

"Really? I heard he was pretty famous with all his art and stuff. Not that I've ever been really interested in drawings or anything," he said the last bit really quickly. I suspected he only knew about it because he'd been interested in what his uncle was up to, rather then any personal interest in the subject.

"He...did some things to Marik," I murmured, not wanting to give away my best friend's darkest secret - the scars on his back that had been carved into his skin at the age of twelve.

"Oh..." Namu's head thumped against the window, mouth tight.

"Your parents, though - you said they were Others? Is that why you can withstand the Ward? Genetics?" I asked, speeding up and passing a small four door sedan before falling back to the speed limit. I didn't dare want to catch the attention of any passing cops because of a whole series of things: I was driving without an official license, there was a warrant out for my arrest, we had two people knocked out in the trunk, and there was a wanted terrorist snoozing in the backseat.

"Nope. I can stand that thing because of these," he pulled out a pair of glasses from his pocket. "The Ward doesn't effect people as much if they can't see clearly. The lenses blur my vision just enough that the edge is taken off of it. I'm used to you right now, so I can be around you without freaking out."

I blinked, remembering the old lady who ran the library I worked at in Domino City who was half blind and, on occasion, was kind enough to provide about half the books in my collection over the years I worked there. Her lack of eyesight must have contributed to her odd behaviour.

"That's cool," I nodded.

"Hmmm," was his answer.

I glanced over at him, awkwardly. He raised an eyebrow in my direction. A snicker escaped my lips at the same time it left his. God, we were weird.

"Am I even going in the right direction?" I smirked.

"Yeah. We've got about another hour before we hit the nearest teleportation point. Kaiba's got them set up all over the country to get anyone to Area 51," Namu explained.

"Where is the actual place, though?"

"No idea. No one knows, really. Well, except the Kaiba brothers and Bleu. Maybe her, too," he indicated towards Atem. "I think the idea is that if anyone were to get captured, they wouldn't be able to reveal the location of the base and attack it."

"So no one knows? At all? Wow, I knew that the guy was paranoid, but that's pretty insane. But then again, it is the Kaiba Cave. It's his secret lair for a reason..." I grumbled.

Namu sputtered, "Kaiba...Cave? That's brilliant - just brilliant!"

"You think?"

"Hell yeah! God, why didn't I think if that? I'm so calling it that from here on out!"

I grinned maniacally, "Awesome."

Then I heard it, the banging of a very angry foot against the back of the trunk. I groaned and Namu huffed. Atem's eyes blinked open.

"What is that sound?" She asked as I pulled over. We were never going to reach the teleportation point at this rate.

I looked at her in rear view mirror, "One of our guests are awake. Coming?"

She nodded, yawning as she reached for the door handle. Namu was already standing in front of the trunk. Atem and I made our way over to him. She clenched her hands and he popped the trunk.

"About damn time!" Sherry LeBlanc screamed as soon as the light hit her face, "I've been pounding on that thing for hours!"

In all honesty, it was probably about five minutes. But who was counting?

"You want something?" I snapped.

"Yeah! Let me go," she indicated to her tied wrists.

"That's not an option," Atem frowned. She reached for the trunk lid, but LeBlanc's eyes widened.

"No wait! Stop! Please, I think there's something wrong with her," she looked over at the other occupant of the trunk. The sniper girl who's shot me only a few hours ago looked as pale as death.

LeBlanc focused on Atem, "Look, I don't care what you do to me, just help her. She's innocent."

"She's anything but," Atem hissed back at her. "She made her choice. I don't suggest lumping yourself in with the likes of her."

I felt like I should have been surprised at her harsh attitude, but for some reason I wasn't. Something bubbled up inside me, shifting and twisting within. I heard Touzoku mutter in the back of my mind, _Hypocrite_.

I wondered what that was about. I'd have to ask later because now was not the best time to dive into my own mind for answers.

"Hey, we need to help. She...could have information. Valuable information," Namu fought back. "We need to help."

"My orders stand. You follow me," Atem snapped at him.

"Well, this is my car. And unless you want to walk the rest of the way, we help the girl," he stared her down, not giving an inch.

She didn't blink, but Atem's eyes narrowed. Finally, she gave, "If this comes crashing down, it will be on your head."

She stomped away, towards the thick, thorny bushes off the side of the road. I yelled after her, "Where are you going?"

"Washroom," she answered and that was the end of that conversation. There was certain ways that I wanted to see her with her clothes off, but that was not one of them.

"Bakura, give me a hand here," Namu called. I turned back to him and helped him lift LeBlanc from the trunk. Immediately, I tapped her legs in specific pressure points, Touzoku's knowledge flowing through my mind, and her knees collapsed underneath her.

"Can't have you running away," I shrugged apologetically. LeBlanc stared at her legs in horror and then back to me.

"She's barely breathing," Namu commented, eyes focused on the sniper girl. "And she's shivering like she's frozen."

"Let me have a look," I nudged him over, hands glowing red. I scanned her body, but... "Odd."

"What?"

"Physically, there's almost nothing wrong with her," I told him. "She's not running a fever, her lungs are fine, her heart is pumping. It's her blood - it's moving slowly, despite her heart rate. Like it's thicker then usual."

Namu frowned, "What the hell?"

"Orichalcos cravings," Atem announced her return from the bush-washroom. "She's in the initial stages. Hallucinations are next, though they'll show in about a few days - maybe a week, if her luck is good."

"What kind of hallucinations?" I questioned.

She shrugged, "They're different for every person, though a common one is thinking that your insides are on fire."

I winced. That was not a fate I'd wish on anyone.

"Is there anything we can do?" Namu turned to her.

"It's best if she keeps sleeping. That way, she can ride out the worst of it. When she wakes up, she'll be exhausted. And thirsty," Atem added. "Very thirsty."

He nodded, "We should probably stop and pick up something for her, then. In case she wakes up.". He raised his hand to his brow, shading the sun from his eyes, "I think there's a sign up ahead. Maybe it'll tell us if there's a drive thru we can grab some water."

"Do what you want," Atem rolled her eyes, kneeling down in from of LeBlanc. "Hello, Agent."

LeBlanc spit in her face. It was probably the only offensive action she could take at this point, sans a head-butt (Atem was out of reach, though, so that wasn't happening). It still pissed me off, though. My fingers were curled around the hilt of my knife before I even realized it was in my hand.

"Classy," Atem wiped the saliva from her cheek. "Really, after over a thousand years, you think that people would get a bit more creative about how they expressed their being upset."

"Go fuck yourself, bitch," LeBlanc snarled.

"I've just got one question and I'll be getting my answer one way or another," Atem said in a voice that was both soft and cutting at the same time, "Why did you come back to the house?"

"What part of 'Go fuck yourself, bitch' did you not get?" She roared back.

Atem sighed, "Alright then." She reached forwards, placing here hands on each side of LeBlanc's suddenly petrified face, "Don't struggle. This will be unpleasant enough as it is."

Atem closed her eyes, focusing. Then LeBlanc gasped, eyes rolling into the back of her head and her body trembling visibly. I realized that Atem was searching through her mind, picking through her memories in search of one particular thought that would answer her question. I swallowed hard. This was something that could happen to me if I wasn't careful due to my nonexistent mental shielding.

Enchantment had always seemed like a joke class for me at Atlantis. I could see now just how powerful and frightening it could be. If something ever happened to me, I'd give everything away without opening my mouth.

After several minutes of shaking, LeBlanc's form collapsed. Atem let her go, placing a gentle hand on her back, whispering comforting words and telling her to breathe.

"W-w-what the hell...are you? What...what was t-that?" LeBlanc coughed up what looked like phlegm, spitting it out on the ground as she hunched over.

"Breathe. Just concentrate on breathing right now," Atem shushed her. She glanced up at Namu and myself, "We've got a bit of a problem."

"What?" I frowned.

"She's not an FBI agent," instead of Atem, it was Namu who answered. We both turned to him in surprise, "I found out last night, but between us getting shot at and your two 'sleeping'," he made air quotation marks around that last word, "I wasn't able to tell you."

I blanched, thinking that maybe he'd heard the two of us last night. But then again...last night...Mmmn...

Nope! Need to focus. I could think about that later (and would, definitely, think about it). Right now, though, I had to keep in the moment.

"So what is she then?" I questioned.

Atem raised an eyebrow at LeBlanc, "Are you going to admit it or am I just going to have to spill your little secret myself."

The woman was so terrified that her knees were rattling against the pavement, but managed to pry open her jaw enough to speak, "I'm a data analyst for the FBI, not an agent."

"Then why are you faking like you are?" I snapped at her.

"None of your damn business!" She growled back.

"You're not just a data analyst, your boss has you registered as being on vacation," Namu crossed his arms. "Right now, you're supposed to be checked into La Cabana Beach and Racquet Club, soaking up the sun on Eagle Beach. And yet, here you are in good old New Mexico. Why are you passing up a month in Aruba for this place?"

LeBlanc's mouth clamped shut. I sighed, looking over at Namu, "Back in the trunk?"

"Oooh yeah."

Thee was much yelling and shouting and at one point, Namu was bitten, but we managed to get LeBlanc stuffed back inside. Just before we slammed the door shut, I pressed my hand to the side of her neck, pulling my best impression of the Vulcan Nerve Pinch (and they say TV teaches you nothing). She was asleep within moments.

Atem sighed beside me, "And now to find water."

"If we run by a restaurant, breakfast is on me," I said.

"If gh05twr1tt3r is your sister, then you've got one of my debit cards. So breakfast is not on you, it's on the English monarchy's tab," Namu corrected me. I grinned at the thought of Charles and Camilla wondering how come they were being charged for a breakfast burrito and coffee.

I slid into the driver's seat, Atem taking passenger and Namu lay down in the back. He was asleep before I pulled into the lane.

* * *

><p>Churches made me uncomfortable. Being inside one made me feel awkward and out of place. It wasn't that I was against Christianity or anything, because I'd probably feel the same if Weevil decided to one day drag me to a Synagogue or Marik took me to a Mosque. Religion was an odd subject when it came to me.<p>

I sure as hell wasn't an atheist. I did believe that something was out there - the existence of Magic only made that belief stronger. But when it came to God or a multitude of gods and goddesses, now that was something I was unsure about. The afterlife, too, which was probably weird coming from me. I was a Necromancer. The afterlife was practically my way of life. And yet, I didn't even know what happened to the spirits that I'd sent onwards.

I used to believe, wholeheartedly, when I was a kid. Mom never really tried to get Amane into Shinto, but dad gave her a Bible one year for Christmas. She didn't often read it, but I did. However, I stopped after she left me. I'd prayed for her to come back and God hadn't answered.

So yeah, churches made me uncomfortable. I didn't help that the first time I saw a spirit (my grandfather), it had been in one. Not one bit. I really felt out of place in them, like I wasn't supposed to be there.

Which was why I was really, really fidgety when Namu instructed me to pull into the parking lot of a church just off the main highway. It was a small little place with a sign out front that said it was evangelical in variety. Namu clicked his key fob and his car, once again, disappeared into a swirl of green nanite smoke.

"So this is it?" I asked.

He nodded, "Closest one to Roswell anyways. The minister here is a pretty nice guy and a friend of Mahad's, I think. I'll go see if he's in. You two grab our guests."

I glanced over at Atem. She hadn't moved to pick up the Convert sniper-girl yet. Instead she was staring blankly at her. As I got closer, I noticed that her eyes were open.

"...Water..." she whispered, voice horse and strangled. "Please...water..."

But I didn't have any water. And neither did Atem, though something told me that she wouldn't have given any to the girl even if she did. I heard Thief King whisper in the back of my mind, telling me that if I didn't have any on me, I could still make some.

There was a tree near by, large and leafy green. I pushed my magic into it's trunk, feeling the liquid just below the surface and tugged. The water, straight from the ground, slithered through the air and into my waiting hands. I heard a gasp behind me. LeBlanc was awake again and had seen what I'd just done.

Ignoring her as she began to stutter at the impossibility, I bent down and offered what I had to the girl. Atem stiffened disapprovingly, but let me do what I wanted.

"Here, drink."

The girl was sluggish, reaching for my hands but missed. She grabbed at my hair and pulled it forwards, though there wasn't enough strength in her body for it to hurt. Eventually, she realized that she'd grabbed the wrong thing and tried again. This time, I brought my hands to her.

She drank greedily, spilling half of it down her front. When she was done, I asked what her name was.

"Brianna," she answered.

"Do you have any idea what's happening to you?"

She coughed, scratching at her arms as if there were insects under them, "I need the stone."

"No you don't. Trust me, that is the last thing you need right now," I told her. "Do you know what it is?"

"Power," she said.

"Brianna, it's killing you, not giving you power," I told her.

"I'll die without it," she curled up into a little ball and started to shake.

"Who gave it to you?" Atem spoke from behind me, maroon eyes dark.

Brianna shrugged, "Some guy."

"What did he look like?"

"I don't know, it was a club," she whined pathetically. "Everyone was getting stuff from him."

"Stuff?" I raised an eyebrow, hoping that this mysterious guy wasn't just giving Orichalcos stones like candy.

"Acid. Powder. Speed," she mumbled. "He wasn't my usual dealer...He said it was something new. Gave it to me when I...said I could shoot."

"What's she saying?" Atem nudged me in the side, not understand the slang.

"She's a drug addict. She got the stone from someone you usually sells cocaine and LSD, probably a few other things, too."

"Ah," she nodded. "Brianna, where are you right now?"

I frowned, not understanding what she was getting at. But then the Convert started talking and my blood turned to ice, "...Yellowknife? I live in Yellowknife."

I didn't even know where Yellowknife was, but I doubted it was in New Mexico. This girl didn't even know where she was.

"How old are you, Brianna?"

"I turned twenty last month," her shivers seemed to intensify.

"And what was last month?" I was catching on now, but I hoped that she said October.

"May? May, right? I need a stone..."

Shit. Had it been a blackout? Or had she just been so driven that she didn't even realize where and when she was anymore? I remembered the little green stone that Atem had destroyed earlier this morning and hated it even more than I had before.

"Guys?" Names head reappeared from inside the church doors, "The minister's got the transporter fired up. Oh, and LeBlanc is escaping."

Double shit. Luckily, LeBlanc's legs were still not functioning properly so she was doing more of a hopping, skipping combination then a full on run. We caught up pretty quickly and I slung her over my shoulder, carrying her into the church kicking and screaming. Namu cradled the tremor-racked form of Brianna in his arms as Glitch settled on his head, following behind. Atem grabbed our bags.

The minister was a blonde, bespectacled man that Namu introduced as Reverend Smith. He had a sharp face and a sharper smile.

"Hello there," he greeted us and I wondered what an odd picture we must have made in his eyes. "Come on in. It's in my office. Do you need any supplies?"

We hadn't found a restaurant, so our stomachs somehow decided to all growl in unison, alerting him to our hunger. He directed us to what looked like a staff room, where there was bagels and other breakfast stuff. I set LeBlanc down, reapplied Touzoku's leg incapacitating technique, and shoved a donut towards her.

"Here. Eat. I don't know if there's food where we're going."

She didn't eat anything, just glared for a moment, "I recognize you."

"Yeah. We met before, in front of an elders home," I figured that she wasn't going to eat the donut, so I took a bite out of it instead. Mmm, chocolate sprinkles…

"No, it's not from that. You were in the news for a few weeks. That explosion at that school dance," she frowned. "You killed thirty people."

I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself as I remembered that terrible night, filled with death, my father holding gun to my head, and facing down something that could only be described as a monster. I remembered Tristan Taylor.

My voice was dark, "I never killed those people. I went to school with them for four years. I never would have killed them."

"There was a profile. You-"

"I never touched them!" I shouted, startling those around me into paying attention. Even Brianna, as out of it as she was, turned her head.

Atem stepped forwards, placing a hand on my shoulder. Her thumb rubbed against my shirt, calming me. I glanced back at her, wanting to say something but not knowing what. I reached back, gripping her hand.

"It wasn't him," Atem told LeBlanc. "I know him very well. The last thing that he would do is kill needlessly."

"I'd check the blueprints of that place he supposedly blew up," Namu said, once again shocking me about how much he knew. I wondered if he'd dug up my information himself or if he'd gotten someone else to do it.

"What's that got to do with anything?" LeBlanc challenged him.

"The police report says that he caused the explosion using the gas system. The building was using geothermal energy, so where'd he get the gas?" Namu shrugged.

The so-called FBI agent stopped talking, seemingly tripping over her tongue.

"Well, aren't you the interesting bunch?" Reverend Smith smiled, "I don't get folks like you everyday in my church. Had enough to eat?"

"I'm not hungry any more," I lied, getting up and moving as far away from LeBlanc as I could. My jaw clenched so hard that it physically hurt.

Atem walked over to where I was. Damn it. Damn it, I thought I was over this. It shouldn't freaking bother me. I should be over this. It had been months since Domino.

Yeah, months in which I'd ignored everything that happened that day. I'd seen people die, almost died myself. I felt like banging my head against a wall, repeatedly. Stupid-stupid-stupid.

"I never hurt them," I told Atem what she already knew. "I could have, but I never did. I saved some of them. I did what I could, but dad...he -"

"Bakura," she breathed, pulling me down into a hug. I felt her fingers against my back, so different then they had been the night before. They were nice, really nice. It reminded me of a day long ago where her hands where in my hair and there was nothing but an empty room and the beginnings of a crush that was probably doomed to fail.

"I hated them, but I'd never hurt them," I was better then that. I wasn't a murderer.

"I know. I know," she whispered back. Those fingers ran up and down my spine and it made my heart pound. I remembered kissing her more than anything else. I remembered her lips against mine and I wondered more than anything just what we were heading towards.

And for that matter, I wondered what was in our joint past. There was something there, more dark and terrible than anything else that I'd seen before. I knew it, somewhere inside me I just knew it -

I slipped into a memory. I didn't know who's because I didn't think it was Touzoku's and it was far too coherent to be Dark God's. I couldn't see anything, though it wasn't like I was blind. It was like my sight was just missing.

I remembered screaming. A hundred screaming voices - something within me shouted "Ninety nine. Not one hundred, ninety nine" - and the smell of blood. It was thick, getting in between my toes and under my nails. I felt the shafting of rope against my skin as I tried to escape my binds. My throat burned as I yelled, pleaded at the top of my lungs, "Please! Please, stop it! Please!" I heard Atem crying beside me and that was something that I never wanted to hear but couldn't they see, this was wrong -

I gasped, snapping away from Atem and breathing hard. I gripped at the wall, looking for some semblance of normal, while at the same time feeling as if I was going to vomit. The smell of blood lingered around me and my knees shook. But I knew what I'd just 'seen'.

I'd just felt my way through the rebirth of the Orichalcos. Dear god, what had happened that day?

"What happened?" Atem asked, "Bakura, what-"

"I know why you don't want to talk about that day now," I spoke haggardly. "God, you were crying. You never cry, not unless it's really bad."

"Bakura, what did you see?" She sounded terrified.

"Didn't see anything. I could hear things, feel things. The blood. The screams," I tried to make sense of what just happened to me. "That day, I just had a snap shot, but it was terrible."

"It was," she admitted.

"You..." Brianna's head turned towards Atem slowly and lethargic. "You're familiar."

The Immortal stiffened, "I've never met you in your life."

"No...you feel familiar. Like me."

"I'm nothing like you," Atem snapped. She looked over at the Reverend, "We'll be going now."

The man nodded, gesturing towards the door. Atem was the first to stomp out. Namu handed Brianna to me and went to go scoop up LeBlanc. The Convert moaned, as if in pain.

"...Stone," she said, eyes scrunched closed.

"You don't need one. It'll just make things worse," I told her.

"No...no...Stone. My last name," she turned towards my shoulder. "Thirsty..."

I nodded, concentrating on a water battle in the corner. It floated over with the power of my Morphing magic. I adjusted my grip and held the bottle to her mouth.

"Thanks..." Brianna whispered.

"No problem," I smiled back at her.

"I'm not...in Yellowknife, am I?" She asked as we entered the office. Reverend Smith pulled back a rug and revealed a trap dour underneath.

"No," I told her. "To be honest, I don't know where that is."

"Canada," she mumbled. "Northwest Territories. Where's here?"

"America. Specifically, a church in New Mexico."

"Shit, what did I take?"

"Something really, really bad for you."

There was a hidden floor beneath the Reverends' office. Down a rickety set of stairs was an underground room with metal plating on the sides. It looked a lot like the transport room that Kisara had once taken me into on the main floor of the KaibaCorp building. But...

"Do they always have to be this cramped?" I raised an eyebrow.

"For now," Namu explained. "I'm working on a better one , but it's so small because there's only so much mass that can travel between one point and another at any time. At least, until I can make my breakthrough."

And until then, we were all going to get very cozy, apparently. We all squished into the tiny compartment (LeBlanc almost nailed me in the head with her foot in an attempt to kick her way to freedom). The Reverend smiled sweetly at us from just outside as he said, "Activate PORT."

Everything's gone black. It's dark, so maybe I've closed my eyes or maybe I haven't. I don't know. And I'm falling. Why am I falling? I just –

We landed in a familiar hanger, but that wasn't what made me smile. It was a pair of black eyes and black hair, hands on her hips and a grin painted across her face.

"Hey there, Ryou," Amane's laugh was full of joy. "Since when did you start abducting women?"

I glanced down at Brianna and then across to Namu with LeBlanc. I shrugged, "Don't really know. I think it's a phase I'm going through."

* * *

><p>"Is she going to be alright?" I asked, leaning against one of the polls in the hospital area of the Kaiba Cave. Brianna Stone was lying in one of the beds, arms tied down to the side railings.<p>

Ishizu sighed, "Depends on what you mean by alright. She's going to live, but she'll never be the same. We've tracked down her parents. She's been missing for almost seven months. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police had almost stopped looking for her."

"Are they coming in?"

"Hmm?"

"The Stones? Her parents? Are they coming in?"

"And what are we going to tell them, Bakura?" Ishizu turned to me, eyebrow raised, "'We've found your daughter, but she's severely addicted to a magical substance that is slowly going to destroy her soul. So you're not going to be able to take her home. Forever.' As much as I'd like to bring a family back together again, we just can't."

"So what now?" I rubbed my arm anxiously.

"Now, we hope that she can outlast the worst of the cravings so that she can begin to function normally again," she explained.

I looked over at the sleeping girl, who not much older then I was but already so deep into a war she knew nothing about, "What are the chances of that?"

"Pretty good, actually. We caught the addiction early. Any longer and the Orichalcos would have gotten too good of a lock on the soul. The destruction of the stone would have ripped her apart," Ishizu's voice took on a darker tone and I knew that she had seen it happen before.

I looked down the aisle of patients, all chained to their beds. A few of them were awake, groaning and moaning. Others were shaking in their beds, looking as if they wanted to tear at their own skin.

Brianna opened her eyes, blinked groggily. I walked over to her, "Hey. How are you feeling?"

But she didn't answer, instead her arms wrenched against she bindings, pulling and tugging in order to free herself. A strangled scream ripped it's way out of her lips as she began to convulse in a way that was in no way healthy for her.

"Brianna! Bri - Ishizu, help! Do something!" I yelled.

The woman shook her head, hands glowing blue. She stepped forwards, placing them on the sides of her head. Brianna's eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed back onto the bed.

I stood there, shaken. A hand touched my arm. I turned, seeing that Amane stood there. She shook her head, tugging me off to the side, "Come on. There's nothing you can do."

My shoulders sagged, but I followed her outside the hospital ward. Once outside, she pulled me into a tight hug, "I missed you, Ryou."

"Me, too," I admitted, pulling back and getting a good look at her. "It's been too long."

"Only a few weeks," she giggled.

"So how long have you been here?"

"No long," she answered as we began to walk towards the main hanger area. "Two days, maybe. After the whole debacle with Mokuba almost getting shot, Kaiba's putting us on the trail hunting this Yubel chick. But she's gone off grid, so we're lying here for a little while in hopes she'll show again."

"So who is she?" I asked.

"Yubel? She's from India actually. From what we can tell, she was imported into the country by some of the higher ups in the Orichalcos army to be their go-to-girl for high profile assassinations," Amane explained. "The thing is, she came from a really poor region, so she's got pretty much no paper trail. I don't even know if Yubel is her real name."

"Jaden knew her," I remembered the meeting I'd attended a few days before leaving Atlantis.

"He would," she nodded. "Yubel's a master Enchanter. She used his friend Jesse in one of her plans once. Poor guy had to eat out of one tube and piss into another after she was done with him."

"Fuck," I shook my head in horrified awe. That explained the look on Jaden's face when Yubel appeared on the screen.

"But forget about me. What have you been up to? You're chasing down the Thousand Spell Book! Have you got any leads?" Amane asked excitedly.

"Actually, yeah. Did someone explain to you how the whole Roswell alien thing was faked?". She nodded, so I continued, "Well, one of the people who came out afterwards about 'seeing' aliens, Glenn Dennis, actually found the Book. But the government moved the thing."

"Yeah, I know this," she frowned.

"It gets better: he kept the location secret for years, but then he was visited twice by people who wanted to know where it was," I was trying to build up tension. I hoped my story telling abilities were up to par and not boring Amane to death, "Dennis showed us the memories before he died. The first one, I didn't get to see - the image was blocked or something. But the second time...have you ever run across the name Yusei Fudo before?"

She frowned, then her eyes widened, "Yes...I...his Life Book...in Magic's graveyard room...Fudo died in Rwanda. His whole team got wiped out. He was a Necromancer."

Okay, didn't get most of that, but the last bit was something I understood, "Fudo visited Dennis, too. His team was looking for the Book and Dennis told them that it was with someone named Martha. Now here's the kicker: one of his teammates, Crow Hogan - his mother's name was Martha and she worked with Dennis at one point. So once we're done here, we're going to go check out her grave. If nothing else, her bones may lead us somewhere."

"Very cool. You and Atem are like something out of National Treasure, traipsing around the country, looking for long lost clues to a secret fortune," she laughed.

"Are you saying I'm Nicolas Cage? Because he was also in Kick-Ass and that was a cool movie," I smirked. She nudged me in the arm, but then bit her lip, glancing at me nervously.

"So how are things between you and her?"

If that wasn't a loaded question, I didn't know what was. I didn't even know how to answer that properly. Things were, in a way, as they always had been. But at the same time, we went from occasionally kissing each other to last night in a matter of days. Was that good? Or bad? I didn't know how to gauge this sort of thing.

"Something happened, didn't it?" And it was moments like this that I remembered that my sister was a bit of a gossip hound in high school and could probably smell my uncertainty on me.

"It wasn't a bad something," I rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly. Very awkwardly.

She stopped, squinting at me like I was something under a microscope. I shifted my weight from foot to foot, nervous under her gaze.

"How far?" She asked suddenly.

"What?"

"How far? First base?"

Oh god.

"You know that much!" I pouted. Amane grunted in acknowledgement.

"Second base?"

Son of a bitch, why was I nodding?!

"Third?"

Don't think about it. Don't think about it. Really don't think about it. Shit, thinking about it - hot! But no! No! Focus on the moment.

"Yes..."

"Who did it?"

So this is what it's like to die of embarrassment.

"Is this really the best place to have this conversation?" I whined.

"Answer the question, Ryou," she folded her arms over her chest.

"She did," I admitted, red as a beet.

Amane nodded, barely hiding a smirk, "You dog."

Anxious laughter escaped my throat, "Thanks. I think."

"Did you, you know, thank her?"

"Um, I offered."

She was taken aback, "Atem said no?"

"She said 'next time'," I hurriedly covered for myself.

"Huh," Amane nodded once more and I felt like a jury of my peers for some reason was reviewing me.

"Just 'huh'? No, you know, reaction?" I looked almost concerned, remembering a very awkward conversation involving way too many things about myself being learned.

Amane's gaze softened, "I love you, Ryou, but I'm happy where I am now, with who I'm with. And besides," her grinned turned cheeky, "the sex is awesome."

"Too much information, Amane," I said in a complete deadpan.

"You're just jealous 'cause I'm getting some and you're not - well, sort of anyways," she cackled.

"Don't remind me. God or not, if I catch Magic with his hand up your shirt, it'll be the last time he'll be able to use them," I grumbled.

Amane continued to laugh at me. And as annoyed as I should have been with her, I simply reveled in the sound. It really had been too long.

* * *

><p><strong>Hey guys!<strong>

**I'd like to thank those who reviewed for the last chapter: Aqua girl 007, Akikee, and InsanityByDefinition. You guys are, once again, beyond awesome.**

**So yeah, kind of an information chapter. There's going to be a few answers to the questions raised here in the next few chapters. Also, I am really digging Namu as a character. He's a bit different to write - he's more 'real world' then the others are, though that might be because he's based on a friend of mine, personality wise. Regardless, he's just _fun_.**

**I'm almost done my exams, so I'm going to have a little more time to write. I'm also going to be baking up a storm in the next few days, so I'm basically going to be covered flour until that's over. The holidays are coming up so things are just getting more and more busy. It's strange that the one time of year where everyone is taking time off work and school is when everyone just never seems to be able to truly _relax_.**

**I, of course, am I hypocrite in saying that, for I will be staying in bed for as long as physically possible tomorrow morning, curled up in the covers like it's my nest.**

**Happy holidays folks,**

**AlcatrazOutpatient**


	8. The Magical Police

**The Others: The Second Year**

**Disclaimer:** Yu-gi-oh! Duel Monsters is owned by Kazuki Takahashi, Studio Gallop, Nihon Ad Systems, TV Tokyo and 4Kids Entertainment. All names were changed to the characters of this fandom in order to protect the real people involved in the following incidents.

**Warning: **Contains mentions of animal abuse, partial nudity, and sexual situations.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 8: The Magical Police<strong>

_Monday, November 6th, 2017_

This was probably the most amusing thing I'd ever seen in my entire life. Namu Ishtar - creator of the many insane gadgets used by the Resistance, the guy who had police car eating nanites, who's helped Atem and I kidnap a freaking member of the FBI - was scared of girls. Well, not scared, but significantly nervous around them, enough for people to notice. This became incredibly obvious when my sister discovered just who he was.

"Oh. My. God. No way. You're - you're FiRe_StArTeR? This is so cool!" She practically squealed, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet, hands clasped in front of her as if in prayer, "I'm Amane. We've spoken - I mean, well, not spoken, but - gh05twr1tt3r! I'm gh05twr1tt3r. I can't believe I'm meeting you in real life."

Namu stood their frozen, eyes wide and jaw slightly parted. He looked her up and down at least three times before nervously waving in her direction. She practically tackled him with the force of her hug.

Yep, this was strangely hilarious.

"Y-you're his...his sister?" His voice cracked, nodding towards me as his arms were trapped by her's.

"Ryou? Oh yeah. We're twins," she grinned up at him.

"Twins, you say?" Namu's words came out a little strangled. I just raised an eyebrow as I tried to keep the massive grin off of my face. "You look...uh, different."

"We're fraternal," I answered as Amane finally decided to let him go. It seemed like my sister was a FiRe_StArTeR fangirl. I chuckled at Namu utterly confused face.

Amane's phone decided to go off at that moment in time, saving the poor guy from anymore of her female tortures, "Vivian. What's up?"

I could make out the faintest sound of her captain speaking on the other end. Then she glanced up at me, "Yeah, he's here."

I blinked, confused. Amane waved her hand dismissively at me as if to say, 'In a minute.'

"Yeah...Uh huh...that's not how it works and you know it...do I have to explain this one more time? He put a spell on the damn thing that so strong that even he can't find it, so I can't just ask- no, I have tried. Trust me on that one." She sighed, "Yeah, sure I'll bring him in. FiRe_StArTeR is here, too. Does Kaiba - yep, sure. See you in a few."

She hung up, planting her hands on her hips, "Well, gentlemen. You've been drafted. Time to meet the captain."

Well, that was unexpected. Namu shuffled awkwardly before shrugging, following behind me as I walked in pace with my sister.

"So what do they want with us?" I asked.

"Vivian says that it's something about that FBI agent you guys brought in. Don't know what exactly," she answered, but then turned back to Namu. "So is it true? Did you really crack DOMA's firewall?"

He rubbed the back of his neck, "That was a long time ago."

"But you did. Crap, they're almost as legendary as KaibaCorp's and they don't have an AI helping them - that I know of anyways," she grinned.

"Well, it wasn't a clean hack or anything. I barely got a look at the files before they triangulated my location."

Amane threw her hands up in the air, "But you actually got in - you gotta admit that's an accomplishment in and of itself."

"I guess," Namu mumbled, looking off to the side. "But the cost out-weights the gain."

"What'd they do? Crash your system, because that's what Noah did to me last year. My computer might as well have been on fire," she chuckled.

"DOMA put a bounty on my head. Two hundred and fifty thousand if I'm brought in dead, double that if I'm alive," he admitted. I stopped walking. So did my sister.

"Just what did you get a look at?" I breathed.

He sighed, "Like I said, not much. Just their employment records."

"And what did you see?" Amane leaned forwards.

Namu's jaw was clenched, his hands fisted in the pockets of his oversized hoodie, "Enough to somehow convince them that I saw something I shouldn't. The thing is, I don't even know what I saw. They booted me from their servers, like, twenty seconds in. Hacking isn't my thing anyways. I like my machines. They don't try to kill me - not much, anyways."

* * *

><p>Sherry LeBlanc sat inside a small, dark room filled with only a desk and a pair of chairs. Through the one way glass, I could see her fidgeting with the sleeve of her dirtied suit jacket.<p>

Atem leaned against the wall, Mahad beside her. They spoke in whispered voices with a sharp-faced woman in her early twenties. When the woman saw us approaching, she waved to Amane.

"Hey, girl! Get over here!" Her smile was full of blinding white teeth. My sister grinned right back at her.

"Guys, this is my captain, Vivian Wong. Vivian, this is my brother, Ryou Bakura, and the infamous FiRe_StArTeR...I don't know his real name, sorry."

"Namu," he answered quickly.

"Well, boys. We got us a problem," Wong indicated towards the interrogation room, straight black hair moving has she did. "She's not talking - well, not really. The only thing that's coming out of her mouth is that she wants to talk to you."

She poked me in the chest. I jumped at the sudden breach of personal space. Then I realized just what she'd said, "Me?"

"Yes," Atem confirmed. "In her words, 'I'm only talking to the albino boy from the explosion.'"

"Great," I grumbled.

"Then what do you need me for?" Namu asked.

"We don't need you here. But if you'll come with me, I'll take you to Kaiba to talk funding," Mahad said.

That seemed to brighten his day, the corners of his lips turning upwards. Just before he walked off, Namu turned towards Amane and stammered, "It...I-It was nice meeting you."

"Likewise," she laughed. "We should talk more often."

He kind of did a full body twitch that I think was intended to be a wave before running to catch up with Mahad.

"Tease," Vivian muttered under her breath.

"What was that?" Amane asked, not hearing.

"Nothing. Nothing at all," the woman had the utter gull to play innocent. Then she clapped me on the shoulder, "Go get 'em, tiger."

I swallowed hard, glancing over at Atem. Her eyes closed and I felt her presence within my mind. She spoke, but her mouth didn't move, "Don't worry, I'll be right there with you."

That helped a lot. I turned to knob to the interrogation room and walked in. LeBlanc looked up just as I shut the door. I noticed that both of her legs were chained to the chair. She noticed where I was looking and made a helpless little sound.

"Apparently, that's what happens here when you try to escape," she answered.

I sat down across from her, "They say that you want to talk to me."

"Did you really not cause that explosion in Domino City?" She asked, her eyes pleading.

"I'm innocent of that crime," I answered. She glanced down at her hands, judging my trustworthiness. Then she looked up, biting her lip.

"You know that I'm not...really an FBI agent – I'm just an analyst," she said. I nodded, but stayed silent to let her continue speaking, "A few years ago, I got this case about a gang in the city you come from, the Green Diamonds. They're mainly drug dealers, but there were some rumours going around the office about how they were bank rolling some really powerful weapons makers. And there was a mention of one of the higher ups going missing there."

I frowned, "And what does this guy have to do with anything?"

"Yugi Mutuo called you Bakura. Well, the file said that he was dating some girl named Bakura."

My heart stopped. No way. This wasn't happening.

The memories came back of a night filled with anger and the fear of loss. I remembered the confusion, the terror I felt, the sound of gunshots and crunching metal on flesh, and the final moment where Keith 'Bandit' Howard accidentally impaled himself on my knife.

"Is the girl a relative of yours?" LeBlanc asked, looking down at my white-knuckled hands that were making the table rattle.

"Don't ask questions. Explain what he has to do with this," my voice was clipped and harsh.

"Do you know where that girl is? If I could get some information -"

"The girl is dead. She's been dead for almost seven months now," I barked, knowing full well that Amane was standing right outside. "She died in the explosion that I was framed for."

"Then do you know what happened to Keith Howard? Because every time I start asking around about him, all I get are references to a stone - the same stone that that girl had," LeBlanc leaned forwards.

"Keith was a dealer?"

"Tell me what that stone is and maybe I'll share what I know about him," her eyes narrowed.

I looked through the glass window, looking for some advice. Atem's voice filled my mind once more, "Tell her."

I ran my fingers through my hair, "You've seen a lot of stuff today. Things that I've done. What do you make of it?"

LeBlanc shrugged, "Honestly? I have no clue what I saw. It all just seemed...impossible. But, it isn't, is it?"

"Magic. Not that stuff you see in shows, but real magic. I can use it," I waved my hand in front of her, conjuring up a ball of light and floating it over to her. LeBlanc's eyes crisscrossed following its path.

"That's...real?" She gasped. I nodded.

"The stone you saw, it's pretty much a drug. It gives Normals - people like you who can't use magic - the ability to do some of the same things I can. But the thing is, your body isn't made to use magic," I curled my hand into a fist and the light went out. "It forces something into your body that's not supposed to be there and destroys your soul in the process."

LeBlanc's mind seemed to be going a thousand miles a minute, "Then that girl…the one from before…she was using that stone?"

"Uh-huh. Last time I saw her, she was throwing up everything she'd eaten in what looks like the last month," I said, remembering what I'd seen this morning when I went to check on Brianna.

"My god," she whispered.

"Do you have any information on what Keith might have been up to with the Orichalcos – the stone?" I clarified when she gave me a confused look.

"To think…this is all insane," she muttered under her breath for a moment before looking me in the eye. "I don't know about any drug trade or anything, but my old boss, Mr. Kay, was always pushing me to look into it. Howard kept going to the county of Fairfax with some of his associates. Kay gave me a list of people he might be trying to get in contact with that were in the area. And I thought…" LeBlanc looked away, "I thought it might be Namu Ishtar."

"Namu?"

"He used to live there – in Fairfax. I got in contact with his family, but his parents hadn't seen him for years," well, that answered one question that Namu had. "But when I got back, Kay was gone."

"Your boss left?"

She shook her head, "Not left. Gone. No one could find him. He just disappeared. I don't even know if he's dead. Mr. Heartland took over and…oh god! He was always wearing this necklace – it had a green stone on it! That same green stone! The Orichalcos!"

I sighed, "The FBI is pretty much infected at this point. Every single government is. The whole world is being controlled."

"What?"

"Why do you think we're fighting? To stop some minor drug ring? This isn't the headquarters for the narcotics division of the magical police," I snorted and LeBlanc looked at me like I was insane.

"How old are you?" She hissed.

"Eighteen. But I've been involved for a year now – maybe longer, if you look at if from a different perspective," I answered.

"You're a soldier. You're a child soldier. This is – this isn't right. You don't have to fight. You shouldn't be fighting!"

I looked away, "I made this choice. And I don't regret a moment of it."

"But-"

"Keith. Green Diamonds. Fairfax. Information, now," and that was the end of that discussion.

LeBlanc looked at me rather worriedly, but continued speaking, "Myself and a few of my colleagues continued working on the case, trying to figure out what they were doing, but Heartland shut them down. I was the only one that kept working – though I did it off the books. I kept thinking that it was Namu Ishtar, so I did some really in depth research into what he was wanted for. Do you know about what he did?"

"He hacked DOMA," I said. "He saw their employment records, though. Nothing big."

"He took a look at their employment records _prior_ to December 21st, 2012," she stressed. "That was back before they bought out Apple."

"So?"

LeBlanc glanced around the room hesitantly, "Nothing I say will get me charged, will it?"

I rolled my eyes, "You're talking to a _fugitive of the law_. What do you think?"

"Right. Being stupid," she laughed nervously. "I…uh…I might be in contact with some people from Anonymous. And I might have asked them to hack DOMA for the same records."

"But, I heard that DOMA's firewalls are crazy strong. Not even gh05twr1tt3r could manage it."

"Not even going to ask how you know about gh03twr1tt3r. But Namu Ishtar and gh03twr1tt3r are just individuals. Anonymous has the advantage in their numbers – they nearly took down the Mexican drug cartel in 2015 after they kidnapped one of their members," she run her hands together. "After they sent me the files, they said they wanted to post what they found on WikiLeaks. But it never happened. Just like Kay, all my contacts disappeared. When I woke up the next morning, there was a decapitated goat's head on my balcony – my _tenth_ _story_ balcony in Baltimore. I got the message and deleted the files. I don't know why they kept me alive."

"They already had you under watch. They didn't need to kill you," I explained, but then caught on to what she said. "But you still read them, right? You know what those files contained!"

"I do. And that's why, after I got a tip saying that Namu Ishtar was living in Roswell, I faked being on vacation. Imagine my surprise when I literally _knocked on his door_," Le Blanc let out a near hysterical laugh. "I was shaking on the way back to the station."

"The files," I growled.

"Right. Sorry, blabbering," she got back on topic. "DOMA's employment records. They're fake."

"What?" I leaned forwards, eyes widening.

"All of the people that DOMA supposedly employed prior to December 21st, 2012 didn't work for the company," LeBlanc told me. "Most of those named were of people who were dead at the time they're listed to be working there, some names even going back years. I mean, its not like they were naming famous people or anything, so that's probably why they flew under the radar."

"Names aren't all you need to get a job, though? How'd they get things like social insurance numbers?" I frowned.

She laughed, "Ask any illegal immigrant and they'll tell you how easy it is to get one of those. Backgrounds are easy. Lying is easy."

"But that's why they want him dead," I breathed. She looked up in surprise, but didn't say anything. "In the last meeting, DOMA was mentioned…shit, are you guys getting this?"

I felt Atem's presence in the back of my mind, "Vivian just ran off to get in contact with Syrus Truesdale. He'll be able to verify this, if no one else."

"Get Namu, too, while you're at it. He needs to know why DOMA's hunting him," I told her before turning my attention back to LeBlanc. "If you thought that Namu was in on it as well, then why didn't you arrest him when you first say him?"

"I didn't go to Roswell to arrest him! I can't arrest him; I'm a data analyst. I got my gun off a CI I had and faked my reason for being there to the local police department so that I could track him down and tell him what I found," she smiled weakly. "That's all I've wanted to do since I got here. God, I should have told him that first night, but I was so _nervous_."

Looked like Namu wasn't the only one that got nervous around the opposite sex. I almost grinned at that. LeBlanc kept speaking, "But then he – you all – kidnapped me and I thought that, maybe, my first assumptions were right. I just…I couldn't risk it. I have a family. My fiancé is waiting for me back at home. What would happen to them if I disappeared like Kay did? I don't even want to think about it."

I reached across the table and held her hand, running my thumb over her skin, attempting to calm her down, "It's alright to be scared. It's normal to be scared."

"I just – I don't know what to do," her whole body seemed to be shaking, her breath quickening. Something very Touzoku in me recognized the signs of a panic attack coming on and I leapt into action.

"Breathe, okay," I gripped her hand, unwilling to let her go. Her hand held on to mine so tightly that my bones creaked. I was faintly reminded of Marik the whole time, "Come on, just breathe with me. In through your nose…out through your mouth. And again, in through your nose…out through your mouth."

I kept it up until her breathing returned to normal and her body stopped quacking. After wiping the tears from her eyes, LeBlanc rubbed her chest as if soothing a long-gone pain.

"Ow," she mumbled. "This is what happens when I go off my meds."

"You get these often?"

"Not as often as I used to, but in high school – yeah, they happened a lot," her head thumped on table in front of her. "I feel so stupid. I should be able to handle this."

"When I first found out about magic, I threw up. I've got a friend who fainted a few times. You've just had your entire world-view rocked. No one is judging you for taking it like this," I told her.

LeBlanc smiled, "You're a good kid."

I laughed outright at that, "You, lady, are the first officer of the law to tell me that in my entire life!"

"Just answer one thing for me," she asked, almost nervously. "Did Keith Howard date your sister?"

I nodded, jaw suddenly made of steel.

"What happened to him?"

I swallowed hard, "He tried to force himself on her."

She blinked, "Tried?"

"Yeah. Tried. I stopped him."

"How?"

I looked up, my red eyes looking like death, "He ran into my knife. And then I watched him die."

With that, I got up, leaving a shell shocked Sherry LeBlanc at the table. I left the room, shutting the door behind me. Atem looked at me as I stepped towards her.

"You did well," she said, shoulders heavy with new knowledge.

"Thanks, I guess. So what's going to happen to her?" I asked.

"That not up to me. Depending on what Mahad needs, she might become one of his spies. Either that, or we'll have to mind wipe her. If she goes missing, then there will be people looking for her – not all of them good," she sighed.

"Either way, she's screwed," I shoved my hands in my pockets.

"I wish there was another way, but we are desperate for soldiers."

"So what now?" I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye.

"Now, we need to relay what we know about the Green Diamonds to Seto. Then we get ready to head out to Santa Fe tomorrow," she started to walk down the hallways towards where I assumed Kaiba was located. "However, that does leave us with a few hours to kill."

"A lot can happen in a few hours," I smirked.

Atem threw me a challenging look over her shoulders, "That it can."

* * *

><p>"<em>There's been an incident in the northern territories again," I heard one of the councilmen say as I eavesdropped from the other side of the door. "There are reports of The Children of Toltec storming several villages, burning the crops and killing the livestock. The men and boys and killed and the women abducted. Rumour has it that they're selling the girls to the Nahua for bed warmers."<em>

"_Well, they'd be good at that. Not much more to do out in that area the farming and fucking," one of the other men laughed, but quickly quested down._

"_This is serious, father," I heard Atem speak. "If The Children keep attacking these villages, then there will be a food shortage. We'll starve inside our walls."_

"_The gods will protect us," the idiot King Acalan spoke._

"_The Maize god will not protect us if we don't show our loyalty to those who grow his crops, father," Atem snapped at him, showing just who it was in the room who was most capable of ruling. "We need to do something for these people or everyone will starve."_

"_I agree with the princess," said the first man. "I propose that we send out a small party to, at the very least, verify the truth of these rumours and report back. If there is need for concern, more troops will be sent."_

"_I volunteer to lead these men," Atem spoke up before anyone else._

"_Girl, you have duties here," the second man growled at her._

"_What duties? The likelihood that any marriage between myself and King Dartz of Mu actually happening at this point, regardless of our engagement, is minuscule. I have no duties here that need attending to," I could just feel her glare through the wall._

_I heard the King agree before dismissing the council. I quickly made my way back to my post to give the illusion that I wasn't listening in on the conversation. Atem came out of the room last, locking eyes with me and raising an eyebrow._

"_I should get packing, then?" I asked cheekily, making sure no one else heard what I said._

"_On day, I'm going to have a conversation with you about eavesdropping," she chuckled playfully. "Though I doubt you will heed its message."_

"_Only if the message is convincing enough," I smirked._

_She rolled her eyes, "Come on. We've got work to do."_

* * *

><p><em>Tuesday, November 7<em>_th__, 2017 _

I was up the next morning early, having forgotten to take my sleep meds. I didn't know if the sun was up or not because Area 51 had no windows. The faint glow of the digital clock in the corner told me it was four in the morning. I used that to get my eyes to adjust and see something in the blackness of the room.

I didn't turn on the lights. Atem was still sleeping beside me. I grinned, thinking of last night, when we'd tumbled into bed together, just a mass of writhing limbs and bared teeth. At some points, it felt more like a sparing match, like we were trying to defeat one another then anything else. I felt a dull throbbing where my neck met my left collarbone and knew, without a doubt, that there was a bite mark there.

But Atem became easy enough to subdue once I hauled up her shirt and her arms became tangled in the sleeves. Her jeans were next, shoved down around her knees, as I was too impatient to take them off completely. Same thing with her boy shorts. I leaned over her, resting one arm beside her head to stabilize me as the other slowly made its way down her chest and stomach. I watched, completely fascinated, as she squirmed when I circled the area just below her belly button.

"Damn it, Bakura! Just do it," Atem cried out, eyes fiery and full of promise.

I smirked, "If you say so."

I pressed my hand firmly against her. I hissed, not really knowing what to expect. It was all so new, from the slick feeling of wet folds to how Atem twisted and groaned when I flicked my thumb across her clit. She bit into her bottom lip, trying to keep from making sounds. So I kissed her, pulling it away from her teeth with my own and murmuring, "I want to hear you."

She let out a sound, strangled and frustrated, bucking her hips and then my ears roared as I felt it – the tip of my finger disappeared into her. Oh god, it was gone. In. Into her. Inside Atem.

She moved again, in what might have been the simplest of movements but it left me slack jawed and suddenly feeling out of place and self conscious of what I as doing. She somehow managed to lean down, taking my finger farther into her body and I couldn't look away. She was so warm, so tight. I was so distracted by the way her body would clamp down on me that I only remembered that I should be moving when she let out a long, hissing breath.

Atem on route to an orgasm was probably the most incredible thing I'd seen in my entire life. Her breath was hot in my ear and she was making the most delicious sounds on the face of the earth. I pulled my finger out, pressing my index and middle together before sliding back in. I felt like a genius as I translated her gasps and moans into what she wanted.

I was a hard as a rock. There was no force in the world that could stop me from getting aroused by this. Because Atem stopped staying still, jerking and twitching and tossing her head from side-to-side. My trousers are really fucking uncomfortable but at the same time, I didn't _dare_ take them off because I might do something stupid. I wasn't prepared – hell, neither of us were for that sort of stuff. But, god, I wanted to. I really, really did.

Things got rather hazy after that. Mainly because she'd finally managed to work an arm free and decided that her best course of action was to shove it down my pants and get to work on making me lose all focus on reality. I remembered squeezing my eyes shut and thinking with the last of my mind to _not stop_ moving my hand.

The female orgasm was something both familiar and slightly alien, I noted as I looked on. It was long – seriously, Atem just kept going, like she was riding it in waves – and her hips kept jerking around all over the place. I could dimly associate the sticky, dampness on my hand with what happened when I came, but I never wanted to _lick_ my hand afterwards as badly as I did now. And damn, she was _loud_, her voice echoing off the walls and that was what did it for me more than anything else. I groaned softly, my whole body tensing as my nervous system channeled a thousand volts of electricity.

I blinked, coming out of my memories and returning to reality. Last night had been something, alright. I got a girl to cum on my first try! Gold star for me! And now, Atem lay curled up beside me, breathing softly in her sleep. A few strands of hair cascaded over her face, her hand curled in the sheets. The red light coming from the clock cast odd shadows on her face and I forgot, just for a moment, that she wasn't as young as I was.

Realization hit me once more. What the hell was I doing? Seriously, what was I doing with her? We weren't sleeping with each other (not really, anyways), not dating, or being together. Were we just friends with benefits? Something fun to play with at the end of a hard days work? Or was there something more, something that neither of us were willing to openly acknowledge?

I plucked at the loose knitted fabric that was our blanket for a few minutes before rolling out of bed. I pulled on a new set of jeans (my other ones had…stains on the front) and quietly slipped out of the room.

The corridor was empty, the only sounds being a distant fan and the drip of pipes. The facility was probably underground, but then again, it could be anywhere. I didn't know – couldn't know, for everyone's safety.

I followed it along until I came to a wide-open space. There were very few people bustling around, ducking under aircraft carriers and around tanks. I looked around, before my eyes fell upon Namu. He was sitting in the corner, looking at his hands.

"Can't sleep?" I asked as I came closer.

He snorted, "What gave it away?"

"The fact that you're awake."

"Walked into that one," he shook his head. "What's your excuse?"

"Insomnia," I answered.

"Mine's shock. They told me…about DOMA. About what I saw. I still can't believe it. I mean, I was sitting on it for _years_ and I never knew," Namu sighed.

"You couldn't have known," I sat down beside him. "There's no way you could have known."

"I should have," he stressed. "I'm smart enough. I should have figured it out."

"No one's blaming you for not knowing, man."

"I'm blaming me," he turned his head so he was looking right at me. "How could I be so stupid?"

"This coming from the guy who, last time I checked, was coming up with a way to teleport tonnes of people halfway around the globe?" I laughed, "You're a far cry from stupid, Namu. Just because you missed one thing, something that you were never going to get, doesn't make you any less of a genius."

Namu stared at his feet for a moment before nodding slowly. His hands twitched, as if itching to get back to the metal tools and circuits that were his trade.

"Bakura?" A voice came from across the hanger and I only had a second to react before my vision was invaded by the blonde curls I associated with Mai Valentine.

"Mai! What are you doing here?" I hugged her back, laughing.

"Just checking in. I was meeting up with someone," she laughed.

"In that?" I raised an eyebrow at her attire. Wearing nothing but a skin-tight tank top, really short-shorts, ripped stockings, and a leather jacket that was slung over an arm, she looked a bit out of place even for her.

"This old thing? Bah, it's something I pulled out of my closet from my high school days," she waved her hand dismissively. "Besides, I needed to play up the whole sexual appeal thing. You get more out of guys when they're think you're into them and all."

"Really? 'Cause from what I've seen, you usually turn them into drooling idiots," I responded snarkily.

"Yourself included?"

"Shut up," I rolled my eyes at her.

"And who's this?" Mai asked, eyeing the now deer-in-the-headlights Namu. He sputtered incoherently before letting out a noise that might not have been entirely human.

"This is Namu. He's Marik's cousin," I answered.

She blinked, "I didn't know Marik had a cousin."

"Marik doesn't know. They've never met," I told her before nudging Namu lightly in the shoulder.

"Oh – uh…hi?" He tried to force out a sentence the poor guy. He really tried. I'd laugh, but then I remembered how I'd barely been able to speak the first few times I'd been around Mai. I pitied him a lot.

"Well, I've got to go let Kaiba know I'm here. I'll see you around, Bakura. Namu," she winked at him, which made his face turn an interesting shade of eggplant. He continued to stare slack jawed until she was completely out of sight.

"…Who was that?" He asked very slowly.

"Mai Valentine. She's a friend."

"Mai Valentine? _The_ Mai Valentine? The best sniper in the entire Resistance?"

"Yep," I grinned.

Namu sighed, hiding his face in his hands, "First gh05twr1tt3r, then Vivian Wong, and now Mai Valentine. Are all the women you know both scary dangerous and scary hot?"

I snorted, "I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer."

* * *

><p><strong>Hey guys!<strong>

**I'd like to thank all those who reviewed for the last chapter: Akikee, Aqua girl 007, and InsanityByDefinition.**

**So we got a little more background on Namu Ishtar. He hacked DOMA (on a dare from an old college buddy, I might add) and had his life torn apart. But what is DOMA hiding? Who are they really? That's a question that will be answered in later chapters.**

**Not much has happened on my end of things, with the sole exception of one of the courses I'm taking this year. Basically, I'm studying serial killers. After my first class, I literally started comparing the six spirits to the different types of mass murders and serial killers that are out there. Thief King's one of those killers that is surprisingly normal until he experiences an incredibly trauma or stressor. Touzoku is an Angel of Death. Game Master is part paranoid schizophrenic, part family annihilator. Soul Steeler is a con man driven to the brink. Dark God is a psychopath with a massive god complex. And Akeifa is a spree killer.**

**It's actually pretty fascinating and I really think I'm going to use what I learn there in The Others to make better characters. I mean, Bakura could technically be considered a serial killer at this point, considering that he's killed more then three people and has 'resting periods' where he doesn't commit murder. And Atem - damn, she's a whole other ball game. I think of her, psychologically, as what happens to a child soldier when they grow up.**

**I'm going to be starting on Touzoku's story after I post this. I'm just going to put this out here right now, as well as in the warning sections of his story: it will deal with some pretty dark topics. Touzoku suffers from MDD or Major Depressive Disorder. While he starts off a bit cheery in the beginning, he spirals pretty fast. He simply stops caring and does some not so nice things even before Atem comes along.**

**On top of that, he's suicidal and has made attempts before. I want to put this out there because I know how certain topics can be triggers for some people and the last thing I want to do is to hurt any of you. So I'm putting this warning out here before I post the chapter and will again in the chapter itself. Please be warned.**

**Until next time,**

**AlcatrazOutpatient**


	9. Tie Me To The Bed

**The Others: The Second Year**

**Disclaimer:** Yu-gi-oh! Duel Monsters is owned by Kazuki Takahashi, Studio Gallop, Nihon Ad Systems, TV Tokyo and 4Kids Entertainment. All names were changed to the characters of this fandom in order to protect the real people involved in the following incidents.

**Warning:** Contains mentions of drug use.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 9: Tie Me To The Bed<strong>

_Tuesday, November 7__th__, 2017_

"Rosario Cemetery. That's where Martha Crow is buried," Noah's holographic form materialized just as Atem stepped into the shower. I growled at the program, who laughed at me, "Oh don't worry. I won't tell Seto that you're banging his mom. Not that he's probably already expect –"

"We're not –" I snapped, but then calmed my self. "Damn it, we're not having sex!"

"Really? Because it does look like –"

"I know what it looks like, okay? Don't mean that's what it is. And what do you mean he's already expecting this?!"

"Ah-ah-ah! Not telling!" The cheeky little bastard grinned at me, "Aaanyways, like I said. Martha Crow was buried in Rosario Cemetery in Santa Fe. I already sent the coordinates to your phone, so you can zap over there whenever you're ready. Unless you're planning on joining 'temy in the shower."

Noah waggled his eyebrows suggestively and fizzled out of existence before I could grab him and wring his neck.

Atem returned a few moments later, just as I was picking up my rucksack and slinging it over my shoulder. As I fished the hood of my jacket out from where it was pressed uncomfortably between my back and the fabric of the bag, she spoke, "Did I hear someone in here?"

"Oh yeah. Noah," I explained to her what the program had passed on to me, with the single exception being how Kaiba was probably going to skin me alive – because we weren't, okay. It was just messing around, that's all. At the end, she nodded.

"This reminds me: I need to show you how to teleport on your own, without the use of that device of yours."

I blinked in surprise and then grinned. That was going to be cool.

According to Atem, teleportation wasn't taught to first years, not because it was ridiculously hard. It was pretty complicated to get a hold on it the first time, but because it was kind of dangerous. When she told me that, my inner fantasy-nerd went Harry Potter and immediately thought of spinching, but Atem said that in all of her years, she'd never heard of anyone losing body parts in transit. So that was one less thing for me to worry about.

But then she did mention the biggest danger: losing memory. This only happened if you travelled too long a distance or tried to teleport too much. Since the spell essentially had you travelling through the most outer layer of the Shadow Realm, prolonged exposure would damage my mind and, in the worst-case scenario, leave me brain dead.

"That's why I look a boat back home when I travelled from Europe a few hundred years ago," she explained. "I couldn't risk my thoughts being taken from me."

"Because they're all you have left," I whispered under my breath. She didn't hear me, but that was kind of the point.

"The main key to doing it properly is to have some sort of reference point – a target, if you like," Atem told me. "It can be anything. Your device uses some sort of number code, but you can use a mental picture of the area, if you want. What ever works for you, use it."

"What do you do?" I asked.

Atem shrugged, "A bit of both. Or if I don't know where I'm going, I imagine someone that I know from there. That's how I landed in Domino City that first time."

I didn't say anything, but I knew that she meant me. Which made sense, now that I thought about it. That's how she'd landed just outside my school that day when she returned my knife to me. Hell, it was how I'd probably landed in her bathroom the night I killed Keith. We'd been focusing on each other.

There was a cheesy one-liner in there somewhere. I just wasn't particularly inclined to voice it.

I pulled up all the information that Noah had sent to me on my phone and stared at the pictures of headstones for a moment before moving onto where Google Maps had placed its little marker for the location. It had been almost surreal to see all of those graves and not see a single spirit floating over them. It reminded me of a time before my magic had activated, before my twelfth birthday, before everything started getting weird.

And then, with my bag slung over my shoulder, the artificial lighting beaming down from above in the hanger I was standing in, and the zipper of my hoodie half done up, I called upon my Summoning magic and for one second, nothing happened. And then –

Everything's gone black. It's dark, so maybe I've closed my eyes or maybe I haven't. I don't know. And I'm falling. Why am I falling? I just –

I caught myself just before I touched down completely, making sure that I didn't trip or fall. Atem slid into existence beside me in a whirl of black smoke and blinked in the sunlight. I zipped the rest of my jacket up and flipped the hood over my head before glancing at the large cross that loamed over the sign that announced where we were.

"Let's ask around for the grave, shall we?" Atem nodded, eyes a bit gloomy while within sight of the cemetery.

The first few spirits we spoke to (a family of four that died in the eighteen hundreds) were surprisingly helpful, once they got over the fact that we could see them. After that was over, they told us that Martha Hogan was interned ten rows to our left and six plots up.

"By the line of cottonwoods," the father said, tipping his hat to us as we left.

Several spirit children, no more then five or six, skipped along side us as we walked. Family members joined some of them, but others didn't have such company. A few tried to pull Atem into a game and she blushed heavily, eyes flicking towards me for a second before telling them that she'd come back and play with them later.

I smirked, "You're pretty good with kids."

Atem was silent for a moment before answering, "I've taken care of a fair few in my time, Bakura. I'd hope that I'd be good with them."

"How many?" I asked, "I mean, I know about the Kaibas and Dark God and I think Game Master mentioned you adopting Morgan freaking la Fay at one point, but there had to have been others."

"Game Master…mentioned Morgana?" She shouldn't have had to sound so hopeful just then.

"Yeah," I felt Game Master's presence in my mind, both straining to hear what was being said and trying to look like he was ignoring it at the same time. But as soon as I knew that he was looking, he went back to his murmuring in Spanish.

"Um…there were a few others. There was Sedina. She was the first. I found her just after Thief King," Atem's voice went a little hoarse for a moment, "after Thief King passed. She was very beautiful, very headstrong. He would have liked her."

_Sedina. Like Sedna,_ Thief King whispered in my mind. _The woman at the bottom of the ocean from my mother's stories. I never believed them to be real, but the Lady Warrior _would_ name a girl after one of those old wives' tales._

"After her was Morgana and then Aladdin. He came to me in the years I spent at sea after the Treaty of Granada was signed. He ended up married to one of the daughters of the Chinese Emperor, of all people," she laughed. "I still track the family line. He's got almost a hundred descendants with his blood in them.

"After Aladdin came Ricardo. He was a slave boy I found in one of the Orichalcos factories in Brazil and I helped him reunite with his parents. I flew them back to Africa afterwards. I don't know what happened to them," she stared wistfully off to the side. "And then I met Dark God."

"What was he like growing up?" I had to know. It was almost impossible just to view the man as any thing else but the monster that I had all but chained up in my Soul Room.

"Surprisingly awkward. During his fourteenth year, I swear to this day, he doubled in height. Kept tripping over his own feet," Atem smirked.

"That's hilarious," I laughed.

"It shouldn't be. I can't even remember how many pairs of trousers he went through, either out growing them or just taking out the knees whenever he fell," she looked indignant. "And I didn't have money for a tailor."

_Until I got her some,_ Dark God hissed and memories of blood and hunks of flesh hitting the brick wall of an alley assaulted me. There was an ear-piercing scream and I caught the glimmer of a purse filled with coins before I was righted in the real world again.

_Sacks of meat. They didn't deserve it_.

I'd been hungry before. Now I just felt nauseous.

"You mentioned Game Master," Atem pushed slightly and I could literally feel the man attempting to edge away from her. "Does he speak to you much?"

"Sometimes. Not often," I answered.

"Does he ever…mention me? Or anything that happened?"

_Don't,_ Game Master warned me suddenly. _Don't say a word to her. She doesn't…she can't… _

"He doesn't hate you," I said, completely ignoring everything the spirit just told me.

Atem actually stopped walking purely out of shock. Game Master started swearing in the back of my mind.

"He didn't? But he said –"

"Honestly, I think the guy hates himself more than he ever hated you," I shrugged.

"Oh," she said quietly before continuing to walk forward. Martha's grave was just ahead.

Martha Hogan was no spring chicken when she died, but her grey hair had yet to turn completely white. She looked to be Native American, though there was something European to her face as well. The dress she wore looked comfortable and well loved.

"Well, hello there," she smiled brightly and I got the weirdest flashback to my grandmother who lived in Cardith. "It's not every day that we get visitors that cause such a commotion. I hear you want to talk to me?"

"Yes. I'm Bakura. This is Atem," I introduced ourselves before continuing. "You used to foster a boy named Crow before you died, right?"

"Crow? My, yes, I did. Odd boy, that one. Always dying his hair. I kept telling him that it would get people talking about him, but I don't think he ever gave his reputation too much thought," Martha smiled thoughtfully.

"Where you ever aware of his…status?" Atem asked awkwardly.

"Status? He was from the reserve, if that's what you're talking about," the woman looked just as confused. I frowned. So she didn't know about Crow Hogan's magic then.

"You used to work for the International UFO Museum?" Atem leaned forwards as she spoke.

"Yes. I did a little volunteer work there once. Why?"

"Did Glenn Dennis ever give you something? A book, maybe? It would have been pretty big and…frankly, really weird. You couldn't have missed it," I admitted.

But Martha just frowned, "A book? No, I don't think so. Mr. Dennis never really spoke to me much while I was there. But there was another girl there that gave me her old recipe book. There was a delicious lemon tart recipe in it. Is that what you're look for?"

Honestly, with the way things were going, it would probably be worth checking out just in case the damn thing was in code.

"One more thing, Mrs. Hogan. Have your grave ever been visited by a strange man? Or been disturbed in anyway?" Atem asked.

"No, no, nothing like that. Why do you ask?"

"No reason," I shifted uncomfortably. This was just turning into a wild goose chase. I glanced over at Atem, whose eyes had just begun to glow maroon with her power.

"Exsisto procul pacis. Be at peace," words of magic flowed from her lips and Martha's eyes closed as if she had fallen asleep. Her spirit burst into flame before disappearing entirely.

"Well, shit," I cursed aloud.

"We've clearly missed something," Atem said as her eyes returned to normal.

"Yeah, but what? Damn it, it was too easy. Do you think that cook book she mentioned might have anything to do with the Thousand Spell Book?"

"I think we've been looking at it all wrong. But I don't know how to look at it _right_. Ugh, this is frustrating," she groaned. I kind of felt bad for her. This whole thing with Martha Hogan had been her first solid lead in, what? Forever?

"So we go back. Check through the files again. There's got to be another connection somewhere. With Glenn Dennis or the Roswell crash or something. There has to be."

Atem looked at me out of the corner of her eye and sighed, leaning against me in a way that made my face feel a bit warm.

"Thanks for that," she whispered.

"Any time," I answered.

* * *

><p>We checked ourselves into another motel after firing off a message to Kaiba about how the whole thing had been a let down. The guy didn't seem too pissed, but promised that he'd get back to us as soon as he could. Apparently, something was going down with that information I'd gotten from Sherry LeBlanc and that took priority over Rosario Cemetery and Martha Hogan.<p>

Atem _was_ pissed and rightly so. We checked out that cookbook thing too – just in case. One of Martha's foster children had it now; though the guy had it stored away in a box and didn't plan on using it anytime soon. We'd seen the book too, so the mysterious person I'd seen in Dennis's memories hadn't stolen it. Damn, and here I thought we were getting close.

"I'm going to go check out that place down the road for dinner. You wanna come?" I asked. Atem made a grunting noise from where she lay face down on the motel room bed before rolling over and right off the thing. She hit the ground with a thump. I raised an eyebrow at that.

"I'm fine," she called. "And yeah. Sure. I'll come."

With her wig in place and my hood up over my head to shield me from both the sun and prying eyes, we made our way out onto the street and into the little diner. There was a couple of older men in one corner talking about the election in New York state and a young woman in the corner dressed in a blouse and pencil skirt sitting alone at a table with a day planner. Her pen made a comfortable ticking sound as she tapped it against the linoleum table.

Atem and I sat down at a table for two in the center. A middle-aged waitress came over and handed us a pair of menus. A few minutes later, she came back asking for drink orders.

"Water for me," Atem said almost immediately.

"Uh…Pepsi, if you've got it," I asked.

The woman nodded, barely blinking at the pair of us before heading into the kitchens.

I glanced up at Atem, who looked as if she was analyzing the crap out of the menu before remembered that she had a hard time reading, "Just ask for the special. It's probably a soup and a sandwich or something equally good."

She gave me a half-hearted smile before setting the laminated card down. When the waitress returned with our drinks, Atem grabbed hers with both hands and downed it in, like, three seconds. Apparently, the waitress had seen stranger things in her time and didn't even bat an eyelash. But that was weird, even for Atem. Something was up.

"Can I get another one of those? And the special?" She smiled a bit too brightly.

The waitress nodded and then turned to me, "And you?"

"The…uh…BLT," I looked between her and Atem, who was looking at her empty glass like it offended her mother. The waitress left again and I raised an eyebrow, "Thirsty, much?"

"Hmmm? Oh, this," she scratched the back of her neck and laughed awkwardly. "A bit, yeah."

"Is everything alright?"

"Why wouldn't it be?"

Wasn't 'avoiding the question' up there on the list of how to spot people who don't want to tell the truth? I frowned, reaching forwards to grasp her hand.

"Seriously, are you alri – shit! Atem, you're freezing!" I cried, nearly upsetting my drink in shock. Her arm felt like a block of ice. She wrenched it out of my hands.

"It's nothing. Really," Atem sighed.

"Bullshit, that's nothing," I snapped as the waitress came back with another glass of water. Atem downed it just as fast as the last one.

"Should I just get you a pitcher?" The woman asked her a southern drawl.

"That's be great," Atem smiled slightly. As soon as the woman was out of sight, I grabbed her hand again, refusing to let go this time. I used Touzoku's diagnostic spell to get a read on her. What came back was more confusing then her symptoms.

Nothing. Atem was physically fine. She wasn't dehydrated or suffering from a cold spell. Her body shouldn't be reacting this way, and yet it was.

I made up my mind, "Okay, I'm not liking this. We should head back to base."

"No!" She jumped, "We can't. Not now."

"There is clearly something wrong with you. We should get you checked out," I tried to reason with her. "We should just ditch the food and teleport back and –"

"Bakura, I can't."

"What do you mean, you can't?"

"I mean," she huffed, "I can't right now. I can't use magic."

"What?"

No, seriously. What? Tell me that she was joking.

"I have these phases - they sort of come and go with me and they mess up my magic to the point where I'm pretty much useless for a few days, barring minor spells like translation," she explained. "I felt the beginnings of it in the hotel room. If I'd known, I wouldn't have come. But basically, I'm trapped here until it's over."

That couldn't have been natural. Something was very wrong here and Atem wasn't telling me the whole story. It kind of pissed me off a bit.

"What is happening to you?" I spoke each word slowly as I forced calm into my voice.

The waitress came back one final time with a pitcher of water and our plates. She set them down in front of us and left without a word.

"Bakura, I just want to get in a good solid meal before it hits. My stomach is going to be off for a while," Atem said before almost literally attacking her food. She sounded irritated. I _felt_ irritated. This was just not my day.

* * *

><p>"You want me to get you a pair of <em>what<em>?"

"Handcuffs. Or rope. Or something to tie me to the bed."

The worse thing was that Atem said in such a calm voice that I thought she was joking at first.

I blinked. There was literally no way I could respond to that without making it dirty. So I didn't even bother trying.

"You know, I don't know if I'm into that kinky stuff, but this isn't how I want to find out," I shifted back and forth on the balls of my feet.

"Just ask the manager. This place is seedy enough. They probably have something in their lost and found," she shrugged. That didn't make it any more okay.

I let out a very controlled sigh as Atem curled up on the bed, looking paler than usual. I turned to the door and she called out one more time, "Make sure to lock it. And take my spare key with you."

I nodded, suddenly feeling a bit worried and wondering what the hell was going on. I could feel the spirits in the back of my mind becoming more and more anxious as time passed. I could feel Touzoku the most, muttering something in Japanese under his breath. It sounded like he was reciting some kind of medical journal out of pure memory. Even the ever-calm Soul Steeler felt twitchy. Something was up and no one was telling me a damn thing. Dark God was full on pissed, raging in rhyme in the back of my head.

The manager wasn't helping. The man was in his late thirties and crusty, smelling like he hadn't showered in days. He cackled when I asked about…bondage gear and made a bunch of really lewd remarks that made me want to bash his face in. After one particularly bad one (one that I dare not repeat), I slammed my fist into the countertop.

"Say that about her again and I'll fucking kill you!" I yelled. The strength I channeled through my arm made the wood crack audibly and caused several keys that were hanging behind him to fall of the wall.

"Whoa, man! What the hell? I was just joking around," he laughed nervously as he threw a pair of handcuffs towards me. "Here. Have fun. Make sure you wash 'em when you're done…fucking psycho."

I grabbed them, cursing him silently as I walked back to the room. Atem was still there, but she was shivering under the blankets of both beds.

"What is going on?" I breathed, hoping for any sort of answer. Touzoku spoke up at last.

_Make sure that her arms are bound in a way that she can't hurt herself. And then make sure that she sleeps_, his voice seemed almost ragged with concern.

"What is happening to her?" I hissed at him.

Touzoku sighed, _Bakura-sama, don't pretend like you don't already know._

That hit me like a tonne of bricks. Because, no, it couldn't be what I was thinking. Atem couldn't have… She _wouldn't_ have…

I was halfway through tying up her hands when she started screaming. I sat on her chest to keep her down, trying to cover up her mouth so that people don't think I was committing murder in here. My hands shook in fear as I strung the cuff's chain through the metal rungs of the headboard and then secured her other hand so that she couldn't move.

_Make her sleep,_ Game Master yelled unexpectedly. Touzoku mentioned in an almost panicked state that since knocking people unconscious used Enchantment magic, I'd be unable to do it.

_Oh, for God's sake,_ the spirit snapped before he – Game Master, he who would deny his feelings about Atem to the bitter end of existence – _shoved me out of my head_ and took over.

* * *

><p><em>I<em> was insane. It was clear to _me_ now. _I_ was insane, driven there by years in the darkness and the years that came before.

The years filled with her.

_I_ came into the world once more, air hitting lungs that weren't _mine_ and _I_ became frighteningly aware of her. Her presence. Her closeness. Her mind and body and soul. She was there, right there. And it was maddening.

_I'd_ have to touch her skin to do this right. Feel it beneath _my_ fingertips. _I_ remembered the last time _I'd_ touched her, with blood slick hands that trailed red on her cheeks. And _I_ remembered the other times as well. The others times when they rested in the small of her back, threaded through her hair, and hesitantly crawled under her clothes. She'd…bewitched _me_, convinced _me_ to love her. It hadn't been _me_. _I_ couldn't have been _me_. _I_ should never have touched her.

Maddening. Insane. _I_ shouldn't be doing this.

_I_ grasped her face between _my_ hands, trying to ignore how her skin felt against _mine_ and failing so miserably that _I_ almost forgot the spell _I_ was to be doing. But then _I_ came to _my_ scenes and focused _my_ power to do _my_ bidding. She gasped and, for a moment, her eyes were clear. _I_ almost hoped that she wouldn't _recognize me._

"B-Bakura…?" M'Lady breathed, just as her eyes closed in sleep. _I_ leaned forwards and touched my forehead to her's.

"Damn you," _I_ whispered. "Damn you, woman. Why are you…? Why do _I_…?"

_My _hands slipped down off of her temples and around her neck. _I_ breathed in a shaking breath and laughed humourlessly, "_I_ could kill you right here. Right now. Would that stop them? The feelings? Your spell? Would I be free of you?"

_I_ felt the others turning in my mind, some seeing what _I_ was doing. They were angry, but _I_ shoved them backwards. Pressing down just slightly on her windpipe, I continued to speak, "If _I_ kill you, will _I_ be able to finally breathe without thinking of you?"

_I_ shook. _My_ body quaked and _I_ could barely keep _my_ vision from blurring. _I_ felt wetness on _my_ face, but _I_ tried to ignore it.

"You are always with _me_. In _my_ mind. How did you get in? No one gets in. How did you manage…?"

Something within _me_ kept burning. _My_ breath hitched in _my _throat. _I_ couldn't do it. _My_ hands slipped from her neck. _I_ just couldn't do it.

As _I_ arched over her, M'Lady breathed silently beneath _me_. _I_ chuckled slightly. This was the only time she'd ever been beneath _me_. Always above. Always on top. So beyond everything _I_ could ever be. _I_ had never been worthy of her.

"_I_ should hate you," _I_ whispered to her, eyes trailing towards her lips.

It would kill _me_ to taste her again. Increase _my_ suffering to a point where _I_ would never hope to be free of her. _I_ cupped her face with _my_ hands.

"Damn you for killing _me_. _I'm_ already dead."

_I_ kissed her. _I_ loved her. _I_ died for her. M'Lady. _My_ beautiful lady. And _I'd _do it all over again without a single change.

Even if she had lied to _me_. Even if she had lied to everyone about what she was.

* * *

><p>I came to in my Soul Room. I felt Game Master in the corridor outdoors, standing awkwardly. Touzoku and Dark God came out of their Rooms as well. I blinked in confusion at the usually down right insane spirit. Dark God seemed almost uncomfortable.<p>

"What's going on?" I asked.

Touzoku flinched, "The others are asking questions. You should probably hear this."

I frowned, getting to my feet (seriously, why was I on the ground again?), before walking out of the room with the other two spirits. The others were gathering in the darkness, seemingly split down the middle. Touzoku, Dark God, and Game Master stood on ones side. Soul Steeler, Thief King, and Akeifa were on the other.

There was a moment of silence where everyone simply stared at each other before Akeifa spoke up, "You three…you know what's going on with her?"

Touzoku nodded as Game Master looked away. The French man spoke again, "Then what is it? We've all seen this, but what's wrong with her?"

"What I can't understand is how you know about this, Game Master?" Soul Steeler fixed him with a suspicious look, "Touzoku I can understand – he's a Healer. Dark God as well, since he's down right obsessed with her. But you? How do you know the answer to something that she refused to tell me anything about?"

Game Master looked up, almost surprised, "She didn't tell _you_?"

"Really? You're going to bring this up now?"

"Everyone just shut up!" I yelled, "Will someone just say –"

"My Queen is an Infected," Dark God muttered.

That stopped me right in my tracks. Akeifa was wearing the same gob-smacked expression on his face, like someone had told him the sky was mauve and had evidence to back it up. Soul Steeler staggered into a wall. And Thief King's jaw dropped.

"I'm an idiot," the boy whispered. "The signs…they were all there and I didn't see them. I'm an _idiot_."

"She's a _what_?" Akeifa's voice cracked.

"An Infected. She's used the Orichalcos before," Touzoku explained.

"My god, it explains everything," Soul Steeler gasped. "How she can sense it. How's she's able to make those charms."

"Brianna Stone. She went through the same thing. Atem – she's having a craving!" I tried to piece it all together.

"I should have seen it," Thief King at cursed himself.

"That's why she's barren," Akeifa spoke at last, sounding as if she didn't believe the words coming out of his mouth.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"The Orichalcos has been known to cause infertility amongst the Infected. Converts can still have children, but when it comes to magic users," Touzoku sighed, "it burns everything out of their reproductive systems. I never got the chance to figure out why."

Akeifa looked wrecked beyond anything I'd ever seen before. He turned to Game Master, who was still standing off to the side and not even looking at anyone.

"You knew about this?" He pleaded for answers.

Game Master's gaze remained fixed to the floor, "M'Lady told me about it."

"She told _you_?" Thief King snapped at him, "Why you? You never cared –"

"Why didn't you ever tell me? Us?" Akeifa asked. Game Master finally found the courage to glance upwards.

"I thought you already knew. I thought she would have told you."

"Of course she wouldn't have told us," Soul Steeler looked absolutely livid. "Not after you ran out on her after finding out!"

Game Master flinched, but didn't deny it. Soul Steeler continued to round on him, "That's why, isn't it? That's why you left her? Because of this! How could you do that to her?!"

"And you would have stayed?" Game Master snapped back at him.

"Yes," came the answer, but it wasn't Soul Steeler. Akeifa was the one who spoke, "Of course I could have stayed."

Game Master looked almost ashamed, but couldn't help but mumble, "She really didn't tell any of you?"

"No. I had to figure it out myself," Touzoku said. Dark God didn't say a word, simply ringing his hands together. I honestly had never seen him so uneasy before.

"She's an Infected," Akeifa repeated. "Princess…I can't believe it. Why? How? Game Master, did she ever tell you that?"

"No. Just that she'd used it before. Just once, though. That's all I know, honestly," he answered. And then silence over took us all again.

I tried to comprehend it, but was almost as disbelieving as Akeifa was. How in the world could Atem be an Infected? Why would she have used the Orichalcos? When? I wouldn't be able to tell because _the symptoms never left you_. They stayed with me to until you died.

And if Thief King remembered seeing Atem act like this, then it must have been in a time before him. I sucked in a breath. Could it have been from the time when she became immortal?

Oh god, that addict she'd told me about a month ago – she'd been talking about _herself_!

Soul Steeler started up the conversation again, shouting at Game Master about something I didn't catch. The Spaniard returned with an equally stinging retort, but I couldn't hear him. I slid down the side of the wall, trying to wrap my head around all of this. I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up and saw the kind face of Thief King.

"You should ask her yourself," he told me. "You're the only one who could possibly get any sort of real answer to all of this. Go. When they get arguing like this, there's no stopping them. This will get pretty messy soon."

I nodded and he helped me to my feet. Just as I walked to the end of the hallway, I looked back and saw that Dark God was staring directly at me. My heart jumped in my chest as a wave of fear ran down my spine. But then he just looked away and whispered, "Take care of My Queen."

I let out the breath I was holding and bobbed my head up and down in acknowledgement. Somewhere, deep inside his insanity-addled brain, Dark God was concerned. And if there was anything I could believe about him, it was that he would follow Atem to hell and back. Nothing else mattered to him – so if he was acting worried, then he genuinely _was_.

As I walked into the blackness, I clenched my fists together. Atem had a lot of things to answer to and I was going to get to the bottom of this whether she liked it or not.

* * *

><p><span>Atem was the first human Infected to ever exist. In a way, she is the reason why the Orichalcos switched to us from the Ancients.<span>

It all started when she brought me back from the dead. Atem is not a True Necromancer, so she can't do much more than be possessed by another spirit. In order to preform a full-on resurrection (which is something that would probably end up killing me due to the sheer amount of magic I would need to pore into that spell), she needed a power boost. And it came in the form of the Orichalcos stone.

There was only one stone created that day, but it was enough for Dartz to hold his ground against an enraged Atem who was hell bent on tearing him limb from limb – which she eventually did. And after I brought an end to her bastard of a father, we walked together through the carnage we'd created just to revel in it one last time.

And then Iona stabbed me through the heart. I killed her before I died, but the damage had been done.

What happened afterwards is something that I don't want to get into now, but what you need to know is that after I passed, Atem lost it. She had just lost the last person that meant something to her and she was desperate beyond anything ever seen in another human being before. And then she remembered what the Orichalcos did to increase Dartz's power and got an idea.

She ran back to where the King of Mu had fallen and became the first human to touch the Orichalcos. It amplified her Necromancy abilities and made it so that she was able to survive saying the words: Surripiam vita a morte.

I steal life back from death.

Needless to say, this move cost her. Atem hasn't touched the Orichalcos since then, but she still feels its pull. She's gotten better at withstanding the symptoms of her cravings over the years, yet it's not enough. She will forever be one of the Infected.

To be honest, I'm not sure that I blame her. In her situation, knowing what I do, I probably would have done the exact same thing. I would have been just as desperate to hold onto the only precious thing that I had left. And Atem's abilities as an Infected have saved our lives more times then I care to count. She's the reason we were able to get a few minutes notice whenever Converts, Infecteds, or Gigas were in the vicinity. That edge is what has kept us just ahead of the game so that the Resistance was able to survive into this century.

Compared to seeing the faces of all those that she was able to save, watching Atem go through a few cravings seems to balance everything out. So I don't blame her. I can't blame her for what she did.

* * *

><p><strong>Hello, my friends!<strong>

**I'd like to thank Aqua girl 007 for her review on the last chapter.**

**Yep, you read that right. Atem has used the Orichalcos in the past. She was desperate and out of her mind when she did it, but she doesn't regret it at all. If you'd just lost literally _everyone_ and just watched the love of your life die in front of you, you'd be willing to everything in her power to bring them back. The main difference between us and Atem is that she actually had the ability to resurrect Bakura, even if it cost her pretty much everything to do it.  
><strong>

**So, Atem's going to be out of commission for a little while. Also, I really liked finally having one of the spirits come into contact with her after their deaths. Game Master is going to change because of what he learned today because he found out that, even though he was just one in a line of Bakuras, he was special to Atem regardless. He did love her, very much so. It's just that he suffers from paranoid personality disorder (PPD) and can't trust anyone. She was the first person that he had put his faith in and when he learned that Atem was the same as the enemies he was fighting against, that tipped him over the edge.**

**Until next time,**

**AlcatrazOutpatient**


	10. You're My Prostitute

**The Others: The Second Year**

**Disclaimer:** Yu-gi-oh! Duel Monsters is owned by Kazuki Takahashi, Studio Gallop, Nihon Ad Systems, TV Tokyo and 4Kids Entertainment. All names were changed to the characters of this fandom in order to protect the real people involved in the following incidents.

**Warning:** Contains mentions of nudity and sexual situations.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 10: You're My Prostitute<strong>

_My back hit the back of a tree and I bit back a grin, "Seems ironic, doesn't it?"_

_Atem's hands were in my hair, her mouth brushing against mine as she pulled out of the kiss for breath, "What do you mean?"_

"_The first time you tried to kiss me," I chuckled darkly, "was against a tree." I kissed her soundly. "In the dead of night." Another kiss that made my knees give out. "Hiding from your comrades."_

_She climbed onto my lap and my hands found her hips, "If a Death Touch jumps out of the bushes, I'll _end _you."_

_I laughed outright at that before my face was pulled back towards hers._

_I couldn't have told you when this started, the furious kissing in the darkest of corners on the blackest of nights. Most nights I ended up in her bed, though we slept together in the most innocent and literal sense of the phrase. All I could say was that, somehow, this was completely mutual – that Atem wanted me just as badly as I wanted her and that we'd been stupid enough to deny ourselves of this for as long as we had._

"_What would you have done?" She asked suddenly. I pulled back in confusion._

"_Done what?" _

"_That day. If I'd kissed you."_

_I dipped down low and pressed my mouth against the hollow of her neck, "Don't really know. Was scared out of my mind."_

"_At the Death Touch?"_

"_Yeah, him too," that brought a laugh out of her that I could feel all the way to my toes. "I wish you wore more clothes."_

_Atem gasped as I rocked forwards and she landed on her back. I crawled over her and went back to lavishing her collarbone with my tongue._

"_W-why's that?" Her voice shuddered as my fingers trailed low on her waist._

"_Wanna mark you, _so bad_, but we can't let anyone see," I hissed. "Wanna touch you until you scream my name, but we can't let anyone hear. Wanna show everyone that you're mine and that they should keep their filthy hands _off of you _because you're _mine_ –"_

_Her hands brought my face up to look her in the eye. For a moment, I saw our usual argument in them – that what we were doing was forbidden, that I'd be killed and she shammed beyond the hope of redemption. But that passed and she sighed, "If I wore more clothes, wouldn't that defeat the purpose of you marking me. No one would know that they were there."_

_I shrugged, uncaring, "I'd know."_

_Atem smiled brightly just then and my heart leapt in my chest. I leaned down, pressing my forehead against hers._

"_I love you," I whispered._

_She tensed under me and I realized that this was the first time that I'd ever voiced those words aloud. I tried to stammer some form of explanation, but I couldn't. Atem grabbed me, swinging me around until I was the one on my back and she was the one towering over me. She kissed me with such intensity that my fingers went numb._

"_Atem, what - "_

"_Want you," her voice was hoarse with desire and I'd never heard sometime more arousing in my entire life. "Want you. Can't have you, but I want – going to touch you. Right now. Right here."_

_Atem ripped off what clothes I had on and kissed her way down my chest, passed my navel, down and – oh, _oh gods_!_

_Afterwards, I lay down on the cool earth as she snuggled up beside me. My voice was rough from overuse, "Not that I'm complaining, but…what _was_ that?"_

_Atem blushed in embarrassment, "The other soldiers…sometimes they talk about what they do when they take others to their beds. Sometimes I overhear. I thought you'd like it."_

"_Yes," I sighed contently, still not understanding just what she'd done. I rolled over and hooking my legs around her hip, pulling her close. Her face seemed to get all the more red. I blinked before a sly grin made its way across my face._

"_You're not done," I pointed out. Atem hid her face in my shoulder. I chuckled, "That's alright. Want to try something."_

"_What?" She asked before yelping as one of my hands slowly slid up her thigh and under her clothes._

"_Wanna find out if it feels good for you, too."_

* * *

><p><em>Wednesday, November 8<em>_th__, 2017_

I woke up with a start, heart slamming against my ribs. Heat rose to my cheeks as I remembered the dream I'd just had before reality came crashing down on me. I scrambled to pull down the thin sheets I was sleeping in and stared at the damp crotch of my jeans.

"Son of a bitch," I swore, more embarrassed then anything else. Damn it, that was the second pair in a week.

I grabbed my rucksack and made a made dash to the washroom. Atem was still sleeping and probably would remain that way for a long while, but I made sure that I was silent. I didn't want to wake her and have to explain what I'd seen her and my past self doing on a forest floor.

I changed my clothes quickly enough, all the time swearing at myself for being stupid and hormonal. God, I hadn't been like this since I was _twelve_. I'd felt so little sexual attraction to anything during my pre-Atlantis years that I might as well have been hanging out around a bunch of lamps, for fuck's sake. And then Atem walks into my life and everything got _weird_. Good weird, but weird nonetheless.

I slipped out of the motel room, bag still in hand, and began to look for a place to do laundry. I stubbornly sat with my back to the washing machine as my jeans and underwear chugged around inside of it, jaw clenched tight and fingers furiously tapping out Dark God's series of sixes against my leg.

I unlatched the lock of the room upon my return and threw my bag on the ground beside my bed. Atem was still fast asleep, hands still cuffed to the headboard above her. I remembered what I learned about her last night and scowled.

Infected. God damn it. What the hell had she been thinking when she picked that fucking stone up? In what universe had using the Orichalcos ever seemed like a viable option for her to take? Not this one, that was for sure.

I wondered who else knew. The Kaibas most definitely. Kisara, too. It always seemed to be those three who were constantly in the know. My heart skipped a beat as I remembered earlier this year, seeing the three of them doing the same thing to a screaming Atem that I'd done last night. Ishizu and Mahad had been there as well. They knew, as well.

I sat down on the bed opposite her with a thump. My teeth ground against each other and my hands continued with their tapping. I was irritated and annoyed. Why had she never told me? I deserved to know, damn it. I shouldn't have had to figure out something like this on my own –

Wait. I hadn't been on my own. The other spirits had told me. I shook my head to clear my thoughts, not wanting to know if that reaction had been Touzoku's or Dark God's.

Hopefully Touzoku's. Probably Dark God's. Shit, I was a mess.

Atem twitched just then, her eyes clenching before opening slowly. She blinked the sleep out of her eyes before turning and focusing on me. Her face turned into a blank, unreadable mask when she saw my expression.

"You know."

"No shit," I growled back at her.

She sighed, looking away, "What do you want me to say? That I'm sorry?"

"I don't know. Are you?"

"No."

Her answer, so simply and frank, startled me, "Why?"

Atem glanced back at me and her eyes softened, "I'm not _him_. Or you, for that matter."

"What has that got to do with anything?" I snapped.

"Everything," she answered. "I don't have your powers, Bakura. If I'd tried to resurrect him on my own…I'd have died before I got the second word out. I had to."

"Why? Damn it, what in the world possessed you to even _try_ bringing me back? The first time we spoke, you said that once death takes you, you can never permanently return to the world of the living. That was the first thing I ever learned from you," I was practically shouting at this point. "What in the world were you thinking?!"

Atem said nothing for a moment, before whispering, "Could you take these off of me?"

I hesitated for a moment, "You gonna have another fit?"

"No. I've got the main symptoms under wraps. I just need time to recover now."

I nodded slowly, before flicking my wrist. The handcuffs unlocked and fell behind her head. Atem sat up slowly, stretching her arms out. Her face was hidden behind her hair.

I approached slowly, as if walking towards a wild animal that was easily spooked. Given how she tensed as I got closer, I was right to be worried.

But then her gaze shifted upwards to me and she looked all twelve hundred of her years. There was no sadness in her eyes, no shame. Just fear. Like me, she feared that I would run if I knew the truth.

I wasn't quite sure that she was wrong to believe that I might.

"What was I thinking?" She asked, repeating my question from before. She chuckled to herself, but it was tired and stale, "I was thinking that if I could see him again, it would be worth it. Worth any price."

Suddenly, I found myself next to her, my face cupped in her hands. Atem smiled an utterly heart wrenching smile. She shouldn't have been as tragically happy as she was, in that moment.

"And now I know it was worth it."

Then she kissed me, slowly and carefully, as if she was doing it for the sole reason of tasting me. A shiver ran down my spine as I felt in her an emotion that I didn't understand and dare not attempt to name.

I pulled back, breathless and shaken to my core. It took some time before I could work up the courage to look back into her eyes. When I did, though, I found I could not look away.

"Who are you to me?" I asked, air caught in my lungs.

Atem didn't answer, merely pulling me into a hug. My arms instinctively went around her, but I couldn't tell who was holding whom. Her fingers clutched desperately at the back of my shirt as inhaled the smell of sweat that lingered on her skin. A shuddering breath escaped my lips and seemed to pass into her body.

"I need a shower," she murmured against my skin.

"So do I," I responded.

There seemed to be an unspoken agreement that passed between us in that instant. Only moving back enough that we didn't trip over our own feet, all the same while refusing to let go of the other, we moved together into the bathroom. As the door shut behind us, our clothing fell from our bodies and into a haphazard pile on the floor.

Aside from a few lingering kisses and hands that simply refused to part from each other's skin, it was surprisingly non-sexual. The scent of motel shampoo filled the air as I washed Atem's hair. In turn, her hands rinsed the suds of bar soup off my arms. Her hands came to a scar on the side of my chest.

"What happened here?"

"In May," I answered softly. "When I fought the Gigas, I took a pretty bad hit. Rib punctured the skin."

She bent down low and pressed her lips to the raised tissue. My breath hitched, but my eyes remained locked on hers.

I learned the stories behind some of her scars as well. During the American Revolution, she'd taken a bullet to the stomach and survived through a freak miracle. The tiny burns on her fingers were from the escaping sparks of her lightning arrows. The thin faded line across her right cheekbone was a shrapnel wound from the battle that had killed Thief King. At the end of each tale, I kissed her scars in return.

I didn't ask about the long one that hooked around her right shoulder. I could take a guess, knowing that there was only one person that she'd let get that close to her with a broad sword.

Later, when we'd toweled ourself dry, we lay in bed next to each other. Atem was still naked and as was I. Her head was tucked under my chin and her eyes closed as she listened to the beat of my heart. I traced the curve of her bare hip with my fingertips.

"Are you still mad?" Atem breathed.

I thought for a moment and then answered, "Yes. No. I don't…I don't really know."

"Oh," she sounded surprised and a bit confused. I didn't blame her. I still was.

"Still can't believe this is happening sometimes," I whispered into her hair.

"Believe what?"

"Magic. The Orichalcos. The war. Having _friends_," I hesitated and then swallowed hard. "You."

"Me?"

"Yeah," I snorted. "I mean, if someone told me a year ago that I'd be laying in bed with a beautiful, naked woman in some motel in Santa Fe, I'd have laughed at them. And then suggested that they go check themselves into the mental ward."

"If someone had told me a year ago that I'd be laying in bed with you, seeing you when I thought you gone, I'd have shot them in the face," Atem responded.

"Why?"

"Because I thought that, after Akeifa, that was it. Six souls, the gods said. Just six. Akeifa had been the last, but still I hoped," her fingers moved softly over the skin of my chest. "And then the millennium passed and there was no sign of you. I dared not believe after that."

I kissed her forehead, "I'm sorry for making you wait."

I could feel her smile, "It wasn't your fault."

Silence fell over us once more and I closed my eyes in contentment. I must have fallen back asleep, because when I opened them again, the sun was at the position of high noon.

"Seems ironic, doesn't it?" I bit back a grin.

"What do you mean?" Atem answered groggily.

"The first time after I saw you have a craving, you were coming out of the shower. And you threatened to de-man me if I ever saw you naked again," I sniggered slightly.

I expected her body to seize up, to remember that I'd said similar words and used the same joke as I had in my first life. But Atem merely let out a laugh and poked me in the side, making me jump a little.

"It wasn't funny then, Bakura. What makes you think it would be funny a second time around?"

* * *

><p>We were both dressed by the time the manager came around looking for money to pay for the next night. I growled low and ferial when he began undressing Atem with her eyes. I handed him a few green bills and the handcuffs before slamming the door in the goy's face.<p>

Atem raised an eyebrow at my reaction. I scowled, "He thinks you're a prostitute."

"I've known a fair few in my time. They're quite knowledgeable as to the going-ons of their regular client's lives. I'll take it as a compliment," she said before she returned to leafing through the library book that we'd stolen almost a week ago from the library in Roswell. I took a breath before continuing in a stammering voice.

"He thinks you're my prostitute. That I'm paying you for…sex. That he can pay for you when I'm done," I shuffled from side to side uncomfortably.

"Oh," she looked up at me, smirking. "He's not my type, Bakura."

"I know that!" I pouted.

"Also, you don't have any money. So I'm definitely _not_ your prostitute because you sure aren't paying for me."

"Thanks for reminding me that we're surviving off of very illegal debit cards," I sighed. "Find anything?"

"Nothing yet," she sounded frustrated. "No other mentions of a Martha that I can see."

"Want me to take a look? I read faster then you," I asked. The look she gave me could have felled a charging rhinoceros.

"I can read!"

"I know that. I just said I could do it faster." She continued to glare, so I held up my hands in surrender, "Fine. It's not like we're going anywhere."

"Yes we are. We've only got until Sunday," Atem frowned.

"What's on Sunday?"

"You have to go back to Atlantis."

I blinked in surprise. Right. Atlantis. I'd completely forgotten about that. Back to Marik and Mana and Mai. Back to Leon, whom I had promised to let Touzoku loose on so that he could learn to control his powers as a Death Touch. I should probably get on with planning those lessons out with the samurai so that he didn't terrify the kid by doing something that would be weird by modern standards.

"Oh," that was pretty much all I could say to that. I bit my lip, "What about you? What are you going to get up to while I'm at school?"

"I don't really know. I go where ever Seto needs me to," she shrugged. "And if not, I'll definitely be around."

I smiled at that. Atem was too, I saw. That made me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

"Food?" I asked suddenly, realizing that I hadn't eaten anything since waking up.

"I'm up for that. Though can we avoid that diner? They were giving me odd looks because I drank four pitchers of water," she winced.

"Yeah, explain this one to me: after drinking all of that yesterday, how have you not needed to piss?" I asked sarcastically as I grabbed my bag and held the door open for her.

"Good question," Atem shrugged. "I haven't got the faintest clue."

The manager was apparently still making rounds around the motel, so while he was out, I stole a few twenties from behind the desk. I mean, it wasn't as if you could blame me. The guy was a dick.

We ended up in some kind of high-end coffee shop. Atem was still thirsty, but managed to control herself from downing her hot chocolate in one fell swoop. I glanced from my plate of waffles (whoever came up with the idea of all-day breakfast was a gloriously, wonderful being) up to her and then over to the door.

Something wasn't right here. I could feel it in my gut.

There was a television in the corner of the room that was playing the news. It was currently running some story about a hospital in the downtown area, but I couldn't hear what was being said from where I was sitting. I looked across the way to some of the other patrons of the restaurant. Four ladies chatted softly to each other in a booth. A couple shared caring glances a few tables away, fingers interlocked with one another. There was a lone man sitting by the window, eyes focused on his book.

And then there was them. Two older looking men in heavy jackets sat near the door, leafing through the morning paper. A shiver ran down my spine.

"We've got trouble," I murmured under my breath. Atem didn't react, merely blinked in acknowledgement of what I'd said. She didn't want to give anything away.

"Where?"

"By the door. Recognize anyone?"

Her eyes flicked over to the two men there before returning back to me, "They were in the diner."

"Yeah. Not good, huh?"

"No. Not good at all."

I shoved another piece of waffle into my mouth, "They Converts?"

"I don't know," Atem looked very worried. "I'm still not at full strength. Even my sense for tracking the Orichalcos is down."

I cursed under my breath, glancing over at them again. The man facing me quickly looked down at the paper, which had Atem's mug shot sans her wig, splashed across the front. I was suddenly glad that we'd thought to bring all of our stuff with us from the motel – unlike the last time we had to run quickly. There would be no Namu with his robot bug, Glitch, to grab it for us this time.

"Any chance that you can tag along with me if I were to I teleport?" I asked.

"No," she answered me. "I doubt they'll attack us in broad daylight or in public. So we're safe for the time being."

"No offense or anything, but I don't exactly feel safe," I growled. I dropped my cutlery on my plate, unable to eat another bite with my uneasy stomach.

"You need to draw them out," Atem said.

"Me? Why me?"

"I can't fight right now, moron," she hissed back.

"That's just great. Considering you are the powerhouse out of the pair of us," I looked back at the two men.

"Don't go thinking that. You go into battle planning to lose and you _will_ lose," Atem warned. "Always plan for victory, so that even if you fail, you know you gave it your best."

"They teach you that in the army?" I smirked.

"Yes, actually. My commanding officer told me that on my first day," she smiled fondly.

"I don't think I've ever met him…I mean, I haven't dreamt of him," I frowned. "Why is that?"

"I don't know. You met him a few times. You didn't like him, from what I could tell," she shrugged.

"Why was that?"

"I'm not sure. You two just rubbed each other the wrong way."

I nodded, dropping the subject. Scanning the coffee shop for anything at all, my eyes fell upon the washroom. A plan started to develop in my mind.

"I'll be right back. If I haven't returned in ten minutes, get out as fast as you can," I told Atem before getting up and heading to the back of the shop. I pushed open the door with the male stick figure, finding the room to be empty. Perfect.

I ignored the urinals and headed straight to the middle stall. Locking the door behind me, I clambered onto the toilet, sitting on the tank lid. Then I covered myself in an illusion, making myself invisible to the rest of the world, and waited.

I wasn't disappointed. Within a minute, the main door of the washroom opened up and two pairs of footsteps echoes against the tile walls. I had a brief flashback of hiding in stalls in high school, trying to avoid getting caught by overzealous jocks with my pants down, before coming back to reality.

The door to the stall crashed open as one of the men kicked it down. However, they were greeted by what looked like empty space. One of them turned to the other, making a noise of confusion. I took at as an opportunity to lash out.

Grabbing the first man by his ears, I slammed his head against the bowl of the toilet. He made a choking sound right before I used my foot to kick the lever, giving him a swirly of doom. My illusion dropped as I threw myself forwards, gripping the second man's shoulders and swinging upwards into a handstand.

Using gravity to my advantage, I let my legs drop behind him until I was standing on the ground and his back was bending backwards at a horrible angle. I channeled Combat magic into my arms and threw the man over my head and into the mirror on the opposite wall. He slid, head first, into the sink before toppling forwards onto the floor.

For a few seconds, I stood there and caught my breath. And then it happened.

I felt invisible hands grasping the side of my head and shoved me face first into the toilet water. Liquid poured down into my lungs and I choked and struggled as I drowned on dry land. Something smacked into the back of my neck (a foot, I thought) and I heard my windpipe and spine _crack _in tandem. And then everything went black.

I awoke again on the tile floor and tasted bile in my throat. I spat it out on the ground and shook my head as I rose to my feet. I didn't dark glance back to the body that was still lying face down in the toilet bowl, knowing that I'd caused that – that I'd felt his death. I didn't have time to think about that.

I exited the bathroom as quickly as I could, walking swiftly back to where Atem was already standing. We moved briskly to the door and out onto the streets, not looking back for a moment.

"How long until someone notices the people in the loo?" I snorted.

Just as we were crossing the street, I glanced back and saw that one of the people manning the cash register was on the phone and staring directly at us. I swore under my breath, "Cops are on their way."

"Damn. We need to get out of here," Atem's eyes darted around the street, as if analyzing each person in the crowd. "You can drive, right?"

"Yeah. Why do you ask?"

A man bumped into her just then. She turned, flashing him a bright smile, and apologized. He sneered, clearly in too much of a hurry to be slowed down by a pair of teenagers, and went back to trying to jaywalk his way to the other side of the road. Atem waited until he was out of sight before holding up the keys that she'd just pickpocketed from him.

"I knew there was a reason I liked you," I grinned.

The man's car was a few blocks away. It was a two-door, bright red hatchback that looked to be a few years old. I clicked the button on the key fob and heard the locks unlatch. Swinging into the front seat, I adjusted the mirrors and seats as the car started up.

"Where are we headed?" I asked as I pulled into traffic.

"I had an idea while you were…busy," Atem said. "I think we should check out Yusei's old apartment and see if there's any clues there."

"Because even if he didn't find the Thousand Spell Book, he'd at least know something as to where it was hidden," I finished her train of thought. "Good idea. Any clue as to where he lived?"

She didn't, so I fished my phone from my pocket and tossed it to her, "Could you call someone and find out?"

Atem raised a confused eyebrow, staring at my mobile in her lap as if it would blow up if she touched it wrong. I sighed, somewhat frustrated, "Do you know how to use that?"

"I can do the basics," she looked almost embarrassed.

"Here. I'll talk you through it."

We had exited Santa Fe proper by the time she was finally able to make the call. Moving passed the cookie cutter houses of the land of suburbia, Atem talked awkwardly into the speaker and asked for information about Yusei Fudo. After a little while, she nodded and asked me how to end a phone call.

"So?" I asked as she set the phone down.

"Syrus said that he'd be emailing us Yusei's personal information, whatever that means…" Atem spat out that last bit in annoyance, before starting to mumble darkly about what I assumed what her general dislike of technology.

The device let off a chirp that told me a message had been received. I grinned sadistically, "Know how to use email?"

"I really _hate_ you sometimes."

I laughed out loud, "I know."

* * *

><p><em>Friday, November 10<em>_th__, 2017_

Road trips, as I had come to understand, were a large part of American culture. Packing everything and the kitchen sink into the family car, shoving the kids in the backseat, and setting forth to trapeze across the country – all in the name of a vacation. There was boredom, screaming children, and the dreaded question 'Are we there yet?' Honestly, after all I'd seen in the movies, I had wondered by any sane person would ever want to go through that kind of torture.

Maybe it was the lack of crying toddlers. Maybe it was the fact that the only luggage we had were a pair of backpacks. Maybe it was because no one dared utter _that question_. But this impromptu road trip with Atem from Santa Fe to New York City was actually kind of fun.

At our first rest stop a few days ago, I'd disabled the OnStar security system with my awesome skills (read: called up Namu who promptly told me where to start hacking with Dark God's axe). A strangely gleeful Atem threw what was left of the wiring out the window somewhere along the interstate. I assumed she liked destroying technology as much as the next person. Maybe a little more. Meh, to each their own.

I'd played with the satellite radio until I found a station I liked. Atem closed her eyes and listened along to the songs, somethings chuckling when I unconsciously sang along to the lyrics. She'd been in a much better mood when her magic returned to normal earlier this morning. But this, somehow, led into a discussion about music where I learned a tiny thing about her that needed to be fixed.

"You're never heard _Piano Man_?"

"I'm assuming that's a song title. No. Why? Is it good?" She cracked open an eye and looked at me out of the corner.

"Is it good – woman, are you crazy? It's a classic, the ultimate drinking song. Once you know the words, you can't help _but_ sing along. It's right up there with _Bohemian Rhapsody_."

"_Bohemian_ what?" She asked before suddenly looking up.

I didn't get to retort because right then, something utterly massive slammed into the front end of our car and sent us spiraling off the side of the road, into a ditch. I blacked out for a few seconds, but when I came to, that same something was tearing the roof off.

My eyes widened in shock and fear as the snarling, slobbery face of a Gigas entered my vision.

Just then, I realized that my body was trapped in a cage of twisted metal. I couldn't move. I breathed out the only two words that were appropriate in this kind of situation.

"Oh _fuck_."

* * *

><p><strong>I return to the internet!<strong>

**I'd like to thank those who reviewed for the last chapter: Aqua girl 007, InsanityByDefinition, and ilovemanicures. You guys are awesome!**

**I'm terrible. I'm horrible. I don't update for _months_ and then I leave you on a cliffhanger. I'm sorry. Really, I am. That being said, I'm going to try my best to get the next chapter out as soon as I can because, like hell, I'm going to leave Bakura and Atem in this kind of trouble for long.**

**I have been writing, though, so the last three months weren't the result of writer's block. It's just that it isn't _The Others_ material, so I didn't post it. Well, sort of - some of it was, but mostly it wasn't. Hell, some of it has been on the backburners since last year and I just haven't gotten around to finishing it. So _Odd Happenings_ is going to get an update after I'm done here. Get ready for some more Female!Bakura and some Really-In-The-Future!Bakura tomorrow.**

**Thank you all for sticking with me for this long. I hope to hear from you soon. Also, to all my American readers out there: Happy Memorial Day. To all those brave men and women who serve or have served in the name of their country, we thank you. To all those who have fallen in the line of duty or at home, we remember your sacrifice. You will never be forgotten.**

**Until next time,**

**AlcatrazOutpatient**


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